Please log in or sign up to leave a comment.

1. chongy5 (23 days ago)

   A rather mixed bag for me, TL;DR version of the explanation of 3 stars is that it was OK but nothing special.

   First off, Max Tundra. Hadn't heard any of his (one person) music before, so it was going to be entirely new to me. I was a bit dumbstruck by it - it's just him, using a lot of pre-recorded samples, with the aid of several instruments on the stage. Some of the songs did have a rather light hearted poppy atmosphere to them, but some were just far too fast for anyone to really take in - the sight of his rather interesting dancing (bordering on violent!) was strange to watch, especially in front of the historically wooden London crowd.

   Secondly, the Joy Formidable. I already am deeply familiar with their music - their album, 'A Balloon Called Moaning', is one of my favourite records of the year, and they (to use a so often abused cliché) did not disappoint. Brought out the very best in their songs, with massive amounts of energy and really brought to life (I'll stop with the clichés, I promise). Seemed to go down well with the audience as well.

   Then, the main acts, Passion Pit. By now I was so impressed both on record and live by The Joy Formidable that it was a hard act to follow. I must say, for the first few songs I wasn't moved by the performance; the main singer, Michael Angelakos, seemed to struggle to reach some of the higher notes for quite a few of the early songs, and it felt like it lacked the 'oomph' that a band with such a ferociously energetic LP and EP should have. As the performance went on, the songs and quality of performance did improve, but it certainly falls into the 'OK' category rather than anything beyond. The crowd responded better to some of the songs further down the set list, such as 'Better Things' and 'Sleepyhead', and the encore choices went down well.

   Apologies for the uber long review, but I hope I painted a reasonably accurate picture of this gig to anyone who couldn't make it.

   Reply