Midnight

***MIDNIGHT is one of those “shoulda/woulda/coulda” bands that might actually have made it—had their utter youthfulness not got in the way. Hailing from the ’burbs of Olympia Fields, Country Club Hills, and Chicago Heights, Illinois, DAVE HILLl (keys), SCOTT MARQUART (drums), FRANK ANASTOS (guitar, vox), and JOHN FLASTROM (bass) were all record-obsessed teenagers taking music lessons at Homewood’s Melody Mart in 1974. After meeting, they realized that Hill, Anastos and Falstrom went to Rich Central H.S. in Olympia Fields, while Marquart was just down the road at H-F High School in Flossmoor. That same year they formed Midnight, covering hot and heavy hard rock songs from the likes of Uriah Heep, James Gang and Sabbath (natch!)—but they evolved quickly, playing house parties and high schools around the south suburbs in ’75. By the following year, despite the teenaged years of their members, they were playing nightclubs and colleges in and around Chicago, while adding electrifying original songs to their repertoire. In the fall of 1977, still lacking either management or producer, the kids recorded their LP Into the Night at A-K Sound Recording Studio in Orland Park, IL—privately releasing it in early 1978 in a small edition, making it a majorly sought-after hard rock rarity today. Distributed themselves (and barely promoted), the LP certainly covers all the heavy bases with a wickedly raw mix, at times sounding like proto-doomers Pentagram, with 
the odd, occasional boogie number and power-ballad as well. (STREET DATE - 7/17/2015)