Passion Pit w/ The Beaches at Palace Theatre, St. Paul (14 May 2019)

After a decade, the Manners are more refined–

Forming in 2007 with first full-length released in May 2009, Cambridge, MA electro-indietronica band Passion Pit returned to celebrate the 10^th Anniversary of Manners with a headlining performance at the Palace Theater in downtown St. Paul.

The evening’s opener was Toronto-based, why-have-you-not-played-here-sooner stunning indie rock quartet The Beaches, who not only gained a plethora of new fans, but could be considered as also having stole the entire show.

The all-female foursome (sisters Jordan and Kylie Miller, with Leandra Earl and Eliza Enman-McDaniel) recently released their The Professional EP (on Universal Canada) and have a loud, empowering glam-meets-garage sound that on some faster songs, might draw comparisons to bands like The Runaways, but overall more accurately resemble a band like The Pretenders, with the musical confidence of The Stones or Struts.

The band came out pounding with ‘Back of My Heart’ and hardly let up for their forty-five minute set – “This is our first time here” Jordan said amazingly (as Toronto is relatively close) before ramping things back up with single from the EP, ‘Fascination’.

With the synth buzz of ‘Boy Wonder’, the band showed a calming heaviness that got everyone clapping along, and their closing ‘Late Show’, the title track of their 2017 full-length (produced by half of Metric) stomped with swagger – this is very possibly your new favorite band and one we’d like to see return soon, as Canada has kept them a secret too long.

After a stage changeover that found stations for each of the touring musicians and diagonal light poles that flashed primaries and pastel colors, Passion Pit took to the stage reprising their 2009 album Manners (on Frenchkiss Records) in its entirety.

The band is Michael Angelakos (with live members Chris Hartz – drums; Aaron Harrison Folb – bass/synths; and Ray Suen– guitar/synths) who we’ve previously seen in a small club in Houston as they started out, to a more typical venue like First Avenue , to even an entire football stadium when they played a university homecoming show.

A decade on, the still-youthful Angelakos still wears a familiar white shirt with skinny tie and dark trousers and maintains the high pitch of his distinctive falsetto voice, still rarely standing still, bouncing from one end to the other.

The album noticeably had personally resonated with so many in the crowd, singing along with ‘Moth’s Wings’ and responding on the chorus of the disco pop single, ‘The Reeling’, the openly honest and self-questioning darkness of the lyrics, completely in contrast to the irresistible urge to dance along to the lush, high energy synth beats.

“Everything is easy when you never have to choose” Angelakos sings in ‘Folds in Your Hands’, there is an anxiousness in most songs, reflective of Angelakos himself but he juxtaposes the bleak helplessness of the theme with the shimmer of its end lyric, “Feel it rain, we’re alive”.

“St. Paul, let me hear you!” Angelakos said to start the biggest song on the record, the throbbing ‘Sleepyhead’ with a synth break that sounds similar to vintage Howard Jones, “Twelve years of that song!” Angelakos would say after finishing.

“All these shows have been so fulfilling, it’s been very, very hard for most of my life until recently, this tour specifically” Angelakos said, overcoming some disabling medications that compromised his vocal range and coming to terms with the stress and drama that fraught his early days, now able to look at this first album in the rearview mirror, without wincing.

After completing playing the album and a brief break, a shorter second mini block of songs from more recent albums started with 2012’s ‘I’ll Be Alright’ followed by the sunshine of 2015’s ‘Lifted Up (1985)’.

The smooth R&B-inspired ‘Constant Conversations’ had the crowd “oh, oh, oh-ing” along with the chorus and ‘Carried Away’ contrasted lyrics of messy relationships to a slick and polished peppy electro beat.

With everyone’s hands in the air, the band closed with biggest hit, ‘Take a Walk’ an unlikely hit lyrically based on fragmented recollections of family members’ various hardships, but triumphant with a chorus and melody that are undeniable.

Passion Pit makes the rare decision to both look backward and forward at the same time, able to re-visit that first album with added maturity, more distant objectivity, and also a renewed vigor to play the songs; making for an ideal closing chapter to this first decade of their career, and turning the page for their next volume.

(click on any photo below to enlarge and see full image)