Passion Pit’s latest album Gossamer was conceived in a prolonged state of mania by the band’s bipolar mastermind Michael Angelakos, brought on by a one-off gorging of anti-depressants.
This fact, surfaced in Pitchfork’s engaging profile piece on the frontman, is no more fully realised than in Passion Pit’s live show; where the cinematic scope of the album is translated into an equally large performance.
The songs were built upon by an impressive light show and produced with a sound larger than the fivesome that the band is.
The crashing chords of the chorus of “I’ll Be Alright” opened the night. The interplay between them and the chopped, screwed and mangled vocal samples, and thunderous drumbeats jolted the crowd almost faster than what they were ready for.
They caught up quick however as Passion Pit bounded through the song, singing back to the band “You can go if you want to/I’ll be alright/I’ll be alight”. Although, like the words in the song itself, it was obvious they didn’t want that at all – not for the whole night. The combination of the music and lyrical sentiment made the tune a perfectly enigmatic choice to open the set.
The room bounced its way through the next song, which is also chronologically the next album track, “Carried Away”. The track is compositionally simpler than ‘I’ll Be Alright’, and not as heavy, with its light synthy chorus and rising melody.
The combination of which is rather infectious in a room brimming with enthusiasm for the band. The room often bounced on the night but also took time to sway with the laid back ballad “Constant Conversations”.
Above the descending chord progression and handclaps, the smooth melody and ‘oohs’ from an all female choir created a rather tender atmosphere without any schmaltz.
It’s easy to miss the tortured cynicism of Angelakos’s lyrics which are as deeply in trenched in Passion Pit’s discography as his soaring compositions and top shelf ability to craft a hook. In a sense it makes for an interesting live show.
It’s unlike others that fit the ‘tortured artist’ cliché, something he has tried to distance himself from, as you couldn’t feel sorry for him if you tried. The music commands you to move, up and down, left and right, the hooks prove to be irresistible in making you sing along. The experience of a Passion Pit live show is undoubtedly an uplifting one. Not to mention loud.
Where others thrive on minimalism Passion Pit’s sound is grounded in maximalism. The five-piece produce a ‘wall of sound’, which warrants such a reaction from the audience, who did their best to shake the floor and match the band on stage.
The frontman has an impressive four octave vocal range, which is used not only to deliver catchy hooks and melodies, but also to add a high-end layer to the sheets of music washing over punters. The singer was not shy to smash out big notes and his voice was up to the challenge, with some moments to rest when the crowd took the reigns on some chorus’.
The fans old favourites received some of the biggest receptions of the night, such as “Sleepyhead”, and “Little Secrets” which closed out the night on anthemic note with the crowd going “Higher, and higher, and higher”.
The song competed for adoration with the pounding four-to-the-floor mantra of “Take A Walk”; the lead single from Gossamer saw the band, and audience, at their frenzied best.
