Our fabulous guest blogger, Kenya L. Jones, reports on Saturday night’s gig! It was a great set up at Rumsey Playfield. There were tons of kids there. Food, drinks and a massive merch stand. The two bands were perfect together; a truly exceptional match. Boston’s Passion Pit opened, tossing out tunes from their LP, Manners. The set was simple and easy; the crowd giving as good as they got. Front man, Michael Angelakos, even commented on how it (the second of two sold out performances) was a bit livelier than the first night. Everybody reacted well to gems “Sleepyhead”, “The Reeling” & “Cuddle Fuddle”. They also really went nuts for “Little Secrets”, singing enthusiastically along with Michael. The band sounded very good, not a blip or a peep unintended (so far as I could tell) and their energy level was contagious. Breezing through “Til Kingdom Come”, “Better Things” & “I’ve Got Your Number” without a hitch amidst much fanfare. It left everybody a bit warmer for the relatively short wait for Phoenix on the cool fall night.
Phoenix’s set had a bit more ’show’ to it, in that their album art held court over the drum kit with lit LCD lined panels and flashing lights dancing around to illuminate the Frenchmen. They stepped on stage bathed in silhouette and stood in a line for a beat. Then they kicked into “Lisztomania”. From there, it was smooth sailing through “If I Ever Feel Better” (off United) as well as “Run Run Run” and “Everything Is Everything” (off Alphabetical) along with what’s most familiar to the Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix fans - including 1 (or 2, I guess) of my faves: “Love Like A Sunset” (parts 1 & 2).
Read more of this review & enjoy a Phoenix tune AFTER THE JUMP…
The encore was phenomenal, with a twist. Everybody was disappointed that they had seemingly left the stage without performing “1901″. And, even while enjoying a beautiful cover of Air’s “Playgound Love”, we were all still kind of bummed that they excluded the single from their set. But it was the last thing they plowed into, leaving the crowd pleasantly surprised and floating on a high from the adrenaline, belting out the lyrics, clapping and jumping. Technical issues with his mike prevented Thomas Mars from singing to the instrumental closing, but it didn’t matter because the band sounded great and when the lights went down, people almost didn’t want to leave. But we did, cause we had to and it had started to rain. As we left the park in streams through the cold drizzle that had begun, we tried to stay warm by bursting into spontaneous shouts of “hey hey hey hey” and “falling falling falling falling” until we could no longer see the tent.
MP3: Phoenix - 1901
I love Passion Pit as much as anyone (I mean that LP is one if the best of the year for me) but I was there Saturday night and they are a terrible live band. That dude can’t sing, the backups were off key, and there were so many backing tracks (everything from drums to vocals) that it made them look like a joke next to a band as flawless and skillful as Phoenix.
Dude, I WHOLE HEARTEDLY disagree. They sounded great. Michael’s falsetto was on key and he (imo) was on par with the recorded tracks. The band also sounded great. They didn’t have the flashing lights and what have you to back up their set with a ’show’ if you will, but from what I saw, the crowd was feeling them.
Passions Pit’s vocals were not great. i saw them several months ago and they are improving, but when juxtaposed to Phoenix, there is no competition.
Was I fooled by backing tracks? I dunno, MAYBE … But the sounds coming out of Michael’s throat sounded good to me …
Where I do agree, is that Phoenix put on a better show. They were great together, but Phoenix did ratchet up the entertainment value.