Jul 08 2009 1:25 pm, PIC: TomOldham.com
Passion Pit / Fanfarlo / Apples
Levi’s® OnesToWatch® 5 Night Revue
The Vibe Bar, London
08/07/2009
Boy. It’s hot in here. The air-con is just a hole in the ceiling and the windows have got to be kept shut to keep the neighbours from whining. Thus, being trapped in this intimate situation with the boisterous semi-ska of Apples, the opening band of the night, is almost akin to being batted around Linford Christie’s tightest pair of underpants with a massive truncheon. Their bristling pop deals with the Shoreditch swelter neatly enough, ‘Reason 45’ carving a cheery curve around Vampire Weekend’s afro-beat energy and Golden Silvers’ careening pop cool.
Next to brave the clammy-crotch-inducing stuffiness of the Vibe Bar’s stage are Fanfarlo, who cram as many instruments as they can into their half-hour, spewing raggedy Clap Your Hands Say Yeah stomps that embrace keyboard, clarinet, mandolin, trumpet, violin, and the obligatory blow-down-a-tube-keyboard-thing-that-nobody-really-knows-what-it’s-called. At their best, they are an audience wilting, Arcade Fire-aimed, beast. But there’s a more human frailty to their overboard instrumentation and enormous ambitions that keeps them grounded and prevents them from ever looking as po-faced as Winnie Butler and co. – their Jeremy Warmsley-aided sign-off ‘The Walls Are Coming Down’ a specific example, ramping itself into a sticky-shirted crescendo and ending abruptly, with a humble-but-sudden, “Thanks, good night”, hot on its tail. They don’t do hanging around.
Neither, it seems do tonight’s headliners, Passion Pit. As you’d expect from a band who look like a bunch of IT nerds, their tech is very much up to spec. From the start, the Massachusetts fivesome’s perfectly formed pop nudges the sweltometer into overdrive. Yet, through the thick fug of sweaty bods, frontman Michael Angelakos’ voice is lighter and frothier than a bowl of ice-cold Angel Delight fresh from the fridge. ‘Make Light’, the opening track from their ace debut ‘Manners’, squeaks and thuds in all the right LCD Soundsystemy places, and ruffles the audience into a bouncing mass, transfixed by their big-afro’d electropop aggressors, while ‘Little Secrets’ sees keyboard player Ayad Al Adhamy throwing himself from twiddled nob to tinkled key in a sitting position, yet standing up, meaning his nose is in contact with more or less everything he touches. He’s a human right-angle. It’s ‘Sleepyhead’ that finally strips the paint from the rafters though, sending the room into saturated bouncing ecstasy. Bassist Jeff and guitarist Ian shake bells to hammer it home; they’ve made a genuine pit of passion -with bells on. Bravo.
S Burundi
