Passion Pit turns a rainy day into a bright performance in New York

June 20, 2009, at The Bowery Ballroom

By Eleanor Whitney
Published: June 24th, 2009 | 12:15am

Recently, it seems that New Yorkers have been suffering from what the New York Times has dubbed “rain rage” due to seemingly nonstop, inclement weather. Fortunately, Boston-based Passion Pit were able to help locals shake off their rainy blues, at least for a few hours, with a high-energy set that more than lived up to the band’s name.

Brooklyn’s own one-man band Cale Parks opened the evening with his dancey, minimal new wave. With a fierce pompadour, he played both live and electronic drums that didn’t always mesh as well as one hoped, but his performance was deft and enjoyable.

Shy Child followed and busted out monster rock jams on a keytar, while the band made excellent usage of a rock saxophone. Shy Child were, by far, the happiest-looking band that took the stage, as they performed with huge grins on their faces. As a token of good will, the drummer happily handed out his sticks to fans after the set. The evening had a certain cinematic feel to it which encouraged one audience member to remark, “I feel like I’m watching an ‘80s teen movie montage.”

As the stage was set for Passion Pit, it looked suddenly like keyboards had invaded it. Seven keyboards were shared between four band members — drummer Nate Donmoyer was the only member who didn’t play keys. After a long wait, the band bounded onto the stage and opened with “Better Things.” Considering the high energy of the band and the audience, the song was lackluster, but the band soon hit their stride and steadily gained momentum.

Their set featured selections from both Chunk of Change (Frenchkiss) and the newly released Manners (Columbia/Frenchkiss). The crowd was buoyed by the band’s recent MTV popularity thanks to their admittedly very good video for “The Reeling.” Besides a few diehard fans in the front of the room, it appeared fans from the MTV demographic mostly populated the sold-out show.

On “I’ve Got Your Number,” frontman Michael Angelakos removed the mic from the stand to strike singing poses like an old-fashioned crooner. “Little Secrets” sounded like all the best feel good rock from the ‘60s and ‘70s, with heavy keyboards and irresistible choruses as everyone sang and jumped along to the song’s hook, screaming “higher, and higher, and higher, and higher!” along with the band.

The energy continued on “Folds in Your Hands,” where Passion Pit turned the Bowery Ballroom into a pulsating, sweaty dance club. This was followed by the epic “Moth Wings,” a sweeping piece from the new album that just begs to be worked into a soundtrack for a film. They returned to the dance club feel on “Sleepyhead,” which encouraged so much singing along that Angelakos’ vocals were obscured by the roar of the crowd, and show-goers danced with so much enthusiasm that the floor began to bounce along with them. While the band put their all into performing the songs, they seemed a little over the crowd’s reaction. It was the last night of their month-long tour and they played their songs in a way that shows they know and trust their appeal.

The band saved recent hit “The Reeling” for the closer of a two-song encore where the mood was one of a full-on party. As Angelakos once again took the mic from the stand and the crowd stretched their hands towards him on stage, one would think he was a bona fide popstar. If Passion Pit continues to write such catchy songs and play them with this much enthusiasm, he will likely be one soon.

For more photos from this show visit Venus Zine’s Flickr page

Passion Pit official site

Passion Pit MySpace page

Frenchkiss Records