Passion Pit Engages Earnestly

Sometime in 2007, like a chemist messing around in the lab, Michael Angelakos created a mini-explosion by combining junky disco beats, gallons of squiggly '80s synth lines and a whooping, unrestrained falsetto that sounds like your roommate singing Prince's "Dirty Mind" in the shower. When the smoke cleared, Passion Pit was born and its spawn ("Sleepyhead") started spreading across the blogosphere like the Conficker worm, rocking the iPod of every kid on the block because it reminded them of last year's one-hit wonders, MGMT, and that A-ha song their dad likes.

Angelakos has now turned PP into a real band -- a combo with three keyboards, plus bass and drums -- that headlined the sold-out Black Cat on Tuesday night with the earnest enthusiasm of college freshmen cramming for finals. There is an album to go with the EP from which "Sleepyhead" came, but it wisely leaves the formula essentially unchanged. The crowd spent the majority of the show appreciating that familiarity and singing along to almost interchangeable disco-pop ready-mades like "Better Things," "Little Secrets," "Folds in Your Hands" and of course, "Sleepyhead." A little rougher than on disc, sure, but that bit of grime fit the sweatbox that the Cat had become by set's end. And if Passion Pit's members have let quick success affect them, they never let it show, which made their set a harmless bit of early summer dalliance.

More substantive was an opening set from the Harlem Shakes, who, despite having had much of their equipment stolen in Richmond that morning, played a sterling set of indie rock with enough self-confidence to include saxophone and flute interludes.

-- Patrick Foster