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If any crowd seems suited to The Midnight Beast’s catchy synth-pop tracks about apocalyptic sex, strategy wanking and videogame obsessives, it’s the anxious freshers in glittering baseball caps congregating in Cardiff University Students’ Union. It’s not surprising then that as the band enter – with backing musicians dressed as tigers and dancers in red suits waving TMB flags – that a cult-like response of deafening screams erupt at the venue.
Unlike support act, Unicorn Kid, whose generic trance-pop and shouts of “guys I want to see your hands” became repetitive, the band’s infectious stage presence and charisma is clear from the start. Opener “I Kicked A Shark In The Face” shows off the bratty vocals, puerile lyrics and anthemic choruses that has helped them gain almost 50 million YouTube views and land their own E4 sitcom.
Elsewhere, the Flight Of The Concords-meets-Inbetweeners vulgarity of “Lez Be Friends” may not be a standout on their self-titled debut. However, the boyband-aping dance routine and self-assured delivery helps it become electrifying in its live incarnation. Better still are Stefan Abington’s emphatic vocals on the Busted-esque album highlight, “Begging”, which shows that the band don’t always need to rely on being comical to be engaging.
Their gimmick-heavy set of lycra-clad dancers, X Factor-style introductions and throwing toilet paper into the audience doesn’t always mask the show’s weaker moments though. The band’s jazz hands and perma-grins during Glee pastiche “Life Is A Musical” come across as laboured rather than funny, while an abrasive, rockier climax to “Quirky” doesn’t save it from being one of their least memorable tracks. It’s stripped back moments like bromance-gone-wrong ballad “Friends For Never”, with ballsy lyrics like “our friendship is kind of like a prostitute”, which allow their excellent comic timing to shine through.
During a celebratory run through their 2009 parody of Kesha’s “Tik Tok” (the song that turned them into YouTube sensations) in the encore, Stefan looks proud and slightly disbelieving as the crowd sing the lyrics back to him word for word. It shows that despite their patchy debut album and hit-and-miss schoolboy humour, The Midnight Beast’s likeability and energy in bringing their pop-culture satires to life on stage makes them a far superior live act.
