Wednesday 3rd March 2010 @ Academy, Bristol

With the evening already having been slightly soured by the announcement that British music’s new golden girl, Ellie Goulding, would not be appearing as advertised, I entered tonight’s show a little more under-enthused than I had been previously. I could only hope that a suitable replacement had been found for what was previously a genuinely exciting support act. Unfortunately I was under-whelmed by what I had been provided instead. A DJ that, to be honest, was easier to ignore than listen to and a poorly judged grunge band as a warm-up for an exciting uplifting electronic unit was not exactly what I or, it seems, the rest of the crowd had in mind. The vibe in the room seemed to drop from impatient to frankly inexistent.

So thank god for Passion Pit, the Boston based quintet are just the uplifting pop band you’d need to raise the spirits in this room and raise them they do. With their unique style adding an almost 70’s disco vibe to modern indie, their songs walk the line between great pop hit and cheese but never quite hitting the stilton levels of acts like Mika. Like many before them such as The Killers and Hot Chip, Passion Pit have joined the campaign to prove that the keyboard and synthesizer is cool again and quell the nightmares of people who still remember Axel-F.

Tonight is one of those rare gigs that started badly but finished on a high. Lead vocalist Michael Angelakos’ high-pitched tones, that can only be described as soothing wailing, adding the perfect accompaniment to the layers of synth and keys that surround it, supported by the solid grooving of a rhythm section that knows when to drive hard and when to back off and let the quieter times have their moment. All in all, by initial set closer and biggest hit to date, The Reeling, the set had become so joyous that you wanted your own moment of 80’s movie magic that tonight’s set could have so easily been the backing track to.

By the time the encore is over and a perfectly judged cover of Dreams by The Cranberries has been added, you should’ve been perfectly convinced by Passion Pit; just let yourself go, don’t think about it too much, dance and let them take you higher and higher and higher.

www.passionpitmusic.com

Adam Hooper
Photos by Laura Palmer