Passion Pit / We Barbarians / Mister Heavenly @ the Palladium

December 20, 2010 - Los Angeles, CA

By Wei Shi

Passion Pit @ the Palladium - Los Angeles, CA - December, 7, 2010 - Photos by Wei Shi

Hot off their supporting tour with Muse, Passion Pit headlined a show at the massive Hollywood Palladium on December 7th. The Cambridge, Massachusetts indie electro band incites a double take upon first listen with Michael Angelakos' signature falsetto and the band's intricate layers.

With a night of talented openers, Pepper Rabbit was first up with their soft folk songs.

Afterwards, We Barbarians charged up the audience with some solid indie rock. The Long Beach band played with great intensity as guitarist, David Quon, and bassist, Derek Vanheule, bent over their instruments with charged emotion. Even drummer, Nathan Warkentin, played on with fiery fervor. We Barbarians released There's This, There's That last year and they're definitely a band to keep an eye on.


We Barbarians

It was difficult to ignore the Michael Cera crazed fans at this point. The term "buzzband" basically defines the Sub Pop signed Mister Heavenly. Expectations and intrigue stirred high since the power group consisted of Joe Plummer (Modest Mouse), Nick Diamonds (Islands), and Honus Honus (Man Man) in addition to the shy Cera on bass. Their energy started off strong but after a few songs it was apparent that they needed a more distinct and cohesive sound. The once chanting crowd scarcely danced to the indie pop. Perhaps it will take more time for Mister Heavenly to sculpt out a solid musical identity since there are so many talented individual sounds in the band.


Mister Heavenly

Passion Pit came on stage and instantly transformed a Tuesday night into Friday as the crowd burst into dance. A glowing sea of cell phone and camera screens almost replaced the feeling of raised lighters in the audience. Angelako gripped his white mic and sang with such raw sincerity that he would tilt his head back during a sustained note. Ayad Al Adhamy manned the synths calmly on the left side of the stage while Nate Donmoyer provided the drumbeats that made their songs so irresistibly danceable. Jeff Apruzzese played bass and Ian Hultquist switched from keyboards to guitar throughout their set.

The crowd went wild for, "Little Secrets," and Angelako urged everyone to, "Put your fucking hands in the air." The atmosphere of the night seemed genuinely happy as the crowd bounced around and even crowd surfed to Passion Pit's music. They returned with an encore of, "To Kingdom Come," and a cover of, "Dreams," by The Cranberries. The crowd shouted for their beloved hit, "Sleepyhead," all night and Passion Pit gladly obliged and performed it as the last song.

With so many synth playing electro indie bands that pop up these days, Passion Pit definitely carved out an unmistakable sound for themselves. It's clear from the smiling faces of the crowd that Passion Pit is a band that brings the beat and soul to the music scene.

Click here to check out the rest of the night's photos!

We Barbarians:






Mister Heavenly:






Passion Pit: