Passion Pit

HMV Forum, London
with Ellie Goulding
March 11, 2010

by Joanna Orland

Passion Pit is America’s answer to Friendly Fires. Rising amongst the new breed of synth-centric bands with substance, Passion Pit is catchy, trendy, current but with lasting power, not unlike MGMT and the Friendlies… Their debut EP Chunk of Change and last year’s debut album Manners are solid dance albums that appeal to the Indie / Electro crowd. What makes Passion Pit stand apart from the other dime a dozen electro bands is not only the selection of solid tunes, but lead singer Michael Angelakos’ falsetto vocals. At first listen it might be a bit off-putting, but end result is that this makes the band standout and carries their sound.

With their albums being very solid, Passion Pit had a lot to live up to for their recent live performance at HMV Forum. I have to say that we were very surprised by their performance. In a very good way. The band is actually better live than they are on album, which is quite the feat considering how fabulous their recordings are!

The band has serious energy, charisma, stage presence, musical talent, a captivated audience hyped to sing-a-long and mosh at will, live falsettos that are perfectly in tune, and pretty awesome lighting. Their live energy was feeding off of the audience’s frenzy which you cannot have on album, which makes seeing this band live a very special experience and a MUST for any fan. If you get the chance, you need to make the effort. If the idea of a gig with a frenzied audience is too daunting for you, well then you’ll just have to make do with their album, which is not such a bad consolation prize.