Passion Pit at the Lawn On D

Jacob Cutler ‘19/ Entertainment Monthly Assistant Music Editor

Every live Passion Pit video on YouTube shows that they are an amazing band to watch live, and they do not disappoint. From the first song to the last, Passion Pit crafted a feel good but also electric atmosphere, and from the looks of the crowd everyone was on board with everything about the concert, from the music to the vibes. There was not a single person standing still or having a bad time.

Passion Pit opened with their classic and breakthrough track “Little Secrets” off their debut album Manners. The second the iconic opening synth riff kicked in I knew that this was going to be an awesome concert. The liveliness of the synth sound instantly gives the listener a feel good vibe. Passion Pit played a mix of classics and newer songs, though they played more old songs than ones off their recent album Kindred. Which was very interesting because this tour is the Kindred tour. Despite this, many of their old school fans were very pleased with their set list. Fourteen songs and a lot of sweaty bodies later, Passion Pit ended their set with their mainstream hit “Take A Walk”. After that the stage went black and was completely empty and as everyone was getting ready to give up on an encore, the lead singer Michael Angelakos and company came back on to play one more classic hit for the crowd: “Sleepyhead”. It was a song people had been requested all night and Passion Pit did not want to disappoint.

Angelakos had a certain energy to him that was captivating. I could not look away from him the entire concert; everything from his dancing to his emotional head bangs and fist pumps was truly entertaining. Despite how much I enjoyed the show there were two instances that stood out and took away from it.

The variety of technical issues guitarist Giuliano Pizzulo was having distracted from the show, mostly because his guitar tech had to keep on running on stage in the middle of songs to fix a defective pedal or to adjust a certain guitar tone. Things like this are bound to happen, but you would imagine that at this point in Passion Pit’s career these issues would be very minimal. Another drawback from the show is that overall, the band did not interact with the crowd enough. Other than the occasional, “Thank you”, or, “We love you Boston”, Angelakos was fairly silent and never really connected with the crowd.

If one had only seen their performances on KEXP one would think that they interacted with the crowd at all of their shows. Even if crowds aren’t expecting him to go all “Behind The Music” on the crowd, most are probably hoping for some comments about each song. Maybe the ambiguity makes it better.

Overall Passion Pit puts on a great show and I highly recommend seeing them live. In concert, Passion Pit’s music comes to life and has a euphoric effect on anyone listening. I would give the performance an 8.75 out of 10.