Airborne Toxic Event - Sometime Around Midnight - Lyrics Meaning

"Sometime Around Midnight" is a single from Los Angeles band The Airborne Toxic Event. The lyrics depict an autobiographical account of a run-in that writer/lead singer Mikel Jollett had with his ex-girlfriend while watching a band perform at a bar. Jollett can't take his eyes off of her. Every aspect of her being mesmerizes him.

She acknowledges his presence by greeting him to ask how he's doing. At this time, he is hit by a rush of old feelings and realizes he's still in love with her. He imagines her in his arms again. He feels a great deal of loss and hopelessness as she walks away.

He then sees her leave with another man and is physically and emotionally shaken. His friends (coincidently the entire band in the actual story) notice a change in his demeanor. He stumbles out the door, onto city streets in shambles, feeling as if the world has crumbled in around him.

In January of 2008, prior to the band even being signed to a label, the track was put into regular rotation on LA commercial modern rock stations. Online buzz helped the song become the 2008 iTunes' #1 Alternative download.

The band was eventually signed and the single has charted in both the United States and U.K. in 2009. In March of 2009, Adam Clayton of U2 publicly stated on Shirley Manson's radio show that "Sometime Around Midnight" was his favorite song at the moment. Starbucks picked an acoustic rendition of the song as its "Song of The Day" on May 6, 2009.