Click Click: Passion Pit @ the Black Cat
Hype can be a cruel mistress. Sure, hype is often credited when young bands get noticed and signed. But hype also brings with it a host of undesirable friends, not the least of which are expectations. While many a career has been launched by hype, just as many careers have been crushed under its weight.
These factors were clearly present on Tuesday night when Passion Pit—a band less than two years old playing their first-ever show in the District—took the stage and played to a packed Black Cat (the show was originally scheduled for the back stage, but due to overwhelming demand, was moved to the main stage at the last minute). Passion Pit have risen to prominence thanks largely to influential music blogs, and it's not hard to see why: they've got a sensational story, the likes of which makes for undeniable blog bait. Almost exactly two years ago, Michael Angelakos, then a student at Emerson College in Boston, recorded a handful of songs as a Valentine's Day present for his girlfriend. Those six songs eventually made their way onto the Internet and due to an influx of positive feedback, Angelakos decided to recruit a band. Thus, Passion Pit was born.
So, Passion Pit have managed to capture our attention. But do they deserve it? That question proved difficult to answer on Tuesday night, when the band caused just as many audience members to scratch their heads as move their feet. This much is for certain: for a band of their age and experience, Passion Pit have a remarkable amount of energy and an engaging stage presence. Their live performance, however, hints at something vastly different than what their breakthrough single, "Sleepyhead", conjures. Where "Sleepyhead" is a delightfully fractured amalgam of hip-hop beats, falsetto vocals, sped-up soul samples and icy synths, the live incarnation of Passion Pit is far less eclectic, skewing closer to the geek chic synth-pop of Hot Chip. Good synth-pop, yes but synth-pop nonetheless.
Still, it's hard to complain when Passion Pit, who have yet to record as a full band, are clearly just getting started. They've shown a great deal of promise in a short amount of time, and on Tuesday night they largely delivered, if not in the expected fashion. It's quite possible that many of us just walked into the Black Cat with unrealistic expectations.
Also worthy of mention are the two opening acts. Aloha's Cale Parks performed as a one-man-band, switching between a snare drum, a sampler and a loop station on the fly. His energy was infectious and his songs, which split the difference between Xiu Xiu and New Order, were both moody and danceable. Paper Route, however, didn't fare nearly as well. At their best, they mixed the synth-heavy atmospherics of early M83 with the syncopated rhythms of dance-punk, but they spent the majority of their set reaching for Bends-era Radiohead, though usually veering closer to the radio-friendly arena pop of U2 and Coldplay.