Synopsis

A young man in a bleak, wintry border town faces the uneasy transition into adulthood as midnight approaches. What should be a milestone celebration becomes a rough night of bad decisions, drinking and escalating violence. The video follows him through a world of bars, outsiders and combustible relationships, gradually turning the song's observations about youthful bravado into a compact coming-of-age story. Its extended narrative structure gives the final confrontation more weight than a conventional performance-led music video.

Factoids & Trivia

• The full-length video runs for more than seven minutes, substantially longer than the song itself. It includes an extended narrative introduction and additional story material rather than simply repeating band performance footage.

• A shorter edit was also released, trimming the opening so the song begins more quickly.

• "21@12" appeared on *Future Breeds*, released in 2010 on Dangerbird and Dine Alone Records. It was promoted as the album's first single.

• The song's central idea came from a real incident involving a friend who was turning 21 but could not get into a bar before midnight. Steve Bays photographed the moment and later developed the image into the song's hook.

• Bays described the song as being about the inflated confidence of people in their early twenties, when youth can feel like freedom from adult consequences.

• The video was among the first music videos delivered to U.S. broadcasters through Yangaroo's digital media distribution system. Its delivery was presented as a faster, lower-cost alternative to shipping physical broadcast tapes.

• The song reached No. 28 on Canada's alternative chart.