Coachella 2013: Passion Pit Bring A Blast Of Pop To The Main Stage (PHOTOS)

Erika Brooks Adickman | April 13, 2013 1:24 pm

My friend pointed out that Passion Pit‘s Gossamer sounds like a musical, and that sort of makes sense: it’s about Michael Angelakos, the hopeless romantic who’s a bit fucked in the head and somehow manages to turn all this melancholy into euphoria. This particular musical’s book was always solid, but at times the more delicate Gossamer moments have felt flat during the actual performances. But based on Passion Pit’s Coachella set Friday (April 12), Angelakos has finally mastered the stage show.

Noting that his band last played the Indio, CA festival in 2010, Angelakos said it was “fucking amazing” to be back playing the main stage. And his performance proved it wasn’t an empty claim. He was grinning through much of the set, his vocals sounded strong — which, for him, means loud and chirpy — and he got the entire crowd throwing hands up in unison and dancing with abandon.

They got things going with “Carried Away,” a light number to ease everyone into the dance explosion of “The Reeling” next. (Theory: in many years, when we look back at the synth-pop revival of the aughts, this song will be one of the standards.) Then the set really took off with “I’ll Be Alright” — each time they perform this song, it seems that the polyrhythmic vignette at the beginning gets more and more impressively hyperactive. After that was a quick breather with the slinky “Constant Conversations,” and then they finished up with Manners highlights “Sleepyhead” and “Little Secrets.” It was about as much squelchy electro jubilation you could fit into a 50-minute set outside of the EDM tent.