Live Review: Passion Pit, PVT

An unusually warm winter evening greeted punters making their way towards the outskirts of Northbridge as they psyched themselves up for what would no doubt be one of the most sugary sweet performances witnessed in Perth for a while. With the concert selling out over a week in advance, an impressive crowd had made their way into the venue as PVT took to the stage, and they seemed pleasantly surprised to see such a large number of people watching from all three levels of the venue. While there's not much to say regarding the band's interaction with the crowd (there was hardly any), each individual member of the three-piece seemed to have their own whacky persona – Frontman Richard Pike would perform these squiggly arm-gestures in-between plucking at his guitar, while Dave Miller, the driving forces behind the band's synth work, infused his own bizarre facial expressions amidst the creation of the sonic bleeps and blops that cemented the group's sound. The crowd's response was positive, but really, it paled considerably in comparison to the response shown to the headliners.

The 45-minute wait between the two bands seemed to fly by as hordes of excited ticket-holders poured into the venue and anticipation continued to grow. By the time Passion Pit introduced themselves it was completely bumper-to-bumper downstairs, while there wasn't a single vantage point to see the stage from upstairs. The instrumentalists began with a bang, the fast-paced dance tune and widely recognised single I'll Be Alright causing a frenzy of moving bodies. Vocalist Michael Angelakos side-step danced his way onto stage right before he was due to open his mouth, and once he did, we all knew we'd be in for one hell of a treat. While the opening song certainly kicked the crowd into gear, it certainly felt a little strange to be singing along when the lyrics and mood seemed to be opposed entirely (“I'm so self-loathing that it's hard for me to see”).

That aside, it only got better as the night went on – Carried Away, the next song on the setlist and second consecutive tune from the band's sophomore release Gossamer had the crowd in full-swing; chorusing along and enjoying the easily recognisable lyrics. From here we were introduced to the first song of the night from the band's debut release in The Reeling, which was met with a deafening roar. Certainly the most enjoyable element of this song is the chorus, whereby Angelakos sings a line and gets the audience to sing back to him. This was done so well the first time around that by the second chorus, Angelakos instructed the audience to sing the entire part themselves. It was fantastic to see so many people knowing the words and the vocalist had a grin from ear to ear as a result, shouting out “You're fucking amazing, Perth!” Little Secrets, the final song of the evening was the one to produce the biggest cheer and ultimately the most dancing of the evening, while the encore, which was obviously demanded, featured another synth-drenched dance tune in Make Light, and the song that started the group's rise to fame, Sleepyhead, which once more had the crowd in hysterics, practically screaming along with Angelakos in what was a fantastic end to an extremely enjoyable - and ultimately very sweaty – evening.