Words and photos by Meiyee Apple
Passion Pit played in Los Angeles for two consecutive nights with Cale Parks and Harlem Shakes. Excellent efforts on the two opening bands on both nights, but this is about the dance band of the summer.
Both shows, one at the tiny Troubadour in West Hollywood, and the other at the more appropriately-sized Echoplex in LA, were sold out for the mere price of $15 each. Because of buzz and the hype, tickets were going for $45-$65 each on Craigslist. The local scalper is living large this week.
This pretty much applies to both nights, but everyone is amped to dance and have a good time with their new favorite band. The boys of Passion Pit come out on stage, frontman Michael Angelakos is that friend you have in school that decided to grow a curly afro and a beard, one of the dudes has a McLovin quality to him, and the other keyboardist cast away to the side looks like he’s just lucky to be in a band.
In their short set, they play the best songs off their debut LP Manners, “Folds in Your Hands” and “Little Secrets”. The crowd goes crazy for the single “The Reeling” and blogger favorite “Sleepyhead”. The band has cleaned up and polished the tunes from their Chunk of Change EP. “I Got Your Number”, “Sleepyhead” and “Better Things” all have peppier disco feel to them. The crowd takes the place of the child choir, echoing and singing along “higher and higher” and “OH NO!” If you don’t focus on his voice constantly cracking, it is a really good time.
Angelakos is young, and fairly new, so his stage banter needs some work. Wait a few months, and that humbled and modest attitude they are sporting now will soon turn to snappy attitudes and flashier outfits. That is, if in a few months, Angelakos still has a voice. Auto-tune and production are his friends, because that dude is so pitchy. From time to time, you’ll see people giggle at his warble and whine; not hitting high notes, fading off. The music, though, is so heart-thumping and fun, that his screams go unnoticed, and the dancing continues.
The second night at the Echoplex was a bigger production with a video backdrop and lights, more distraction from his voice. The Echoplex show was more energetic and exciting. On both nights, they only played for fifty minutes. For those people that paid $50 for a ticket, that’s a dollar minute. Everyone had the idea that the smaller venue meant a better, more intimate performance, but really, it was kind of a lackluster show. The second night had more people, so more people to impress, and all in all, a better showing.
