It was 45 minutes before doors were set to open at Brighton Music Hall last month for the fourth and final night of the residency called “Michael Angelakos is Passion Pit.” Soundcheck was scheduled to take place a couple hours earlier, and Michael Angelakos was only now entering the venue. He carried a piece from a drum set he had just purchased. An unlit cigarette hung from his mouth.
Angelakos formed the indie pop band in Cambridge back in 2007 when he was a student at Emerson. Songs such as “Sleepyhead” and “Little Secrets” from the band’s 2009 debut album “Manners” helped catapult Passion Pit into success. Their 2012 follow up album, “Gossamer” continued the band’s commercial success with radio play on songs such as “Take a Walk” and “Carried Away.” Last month, Angelakos turned to Boston audiences to workshop the new material and to figure out what Passion Pit sounds like in 2025.
Angelakos decided to switch up his plan several hours before the final night in Boston. Rather than performing mostly solo as he had been the last three shows, Angelakos asked one of his touring technicians Dimitrius Pass to join him onstage as the drummer for the majority of the night.
After a hustle to assemble the drum kit and a truncated sound check, Angelakos welcomed the crowd. He introduced the night as a workshop of new music and asked them to help him figure out what was working.
“Depending on the feedback I’m getting, you can steer this ship as well,” Angelakos told the audience. “Thank you so much for just letting me work stuff out in front of people and with you. It’s a very special thing for me, and I hope you find it to be special as well. That’s all I can say.”
His words were met with both encouragement and hesitation from the crowd. The first three shows of the residency had received mixed reviews, which Angelakos acknowledged included valid criticisms. But that audience feedback was much of the hope for Angelakos in doing this residency. And in a few short minutes, that night’s crowd was dancing to new music and singing along to fresh renditions of familiar songs.
“ I’m like Katharine Hepburn,” said Angelakos from the parking lot of Blanchard’s Liquor store after the show. “I need the audience in order to kind of turn on.” He signed merchandise for fans as he smoked a cigarette and occasionally gulped down an off-brand pedialyte. He also spoke of how he’s reimagining the concept of Passion Pit to be more flexible as a touring act and more interesting for himself as an artist.
“It all started with talking about shows in Boston,” he said, referring to a conversation with MGMT manager Mark Kates after Passion Pit performed at Just Like Heaven Festival in 2024. Angelakos has had similar offers to play festivals and found himself declining opportunities if it didn’t align with the rest of the band’s schedules. Bandmates Ayad Al Adhamy and Ray Suen have developed careers outside of Passion Pit, running a Brooklyn recording studio and touring with acts such as Childish Gambino, Lorde, and Vampire Weekend, respectively.
“Now’s the perfect time to break it and start over a little bit,” Angelakos said.
Passion Pit’s reinvention has been on public display in these residencies and also online. Angelakos has taken to Substack to release a treasure trove of writing and musical tidbits for fans: from instrumental versions of earlier songs to an unreleased demo of a 2017 cover of Elohim’s “All that Gold.” On more traditional streaming platforms, Passion Pit also released “Sleepyhead 2025,” a new remix by international superstar DJ Sofi Tucker.
Angelakos released a partially completed version of Passion Pits’ newest album, “Nine Times Your Torch Song.” It’s not yet finalized, because he wants audience feedback.
“I didn’t know who my fans were going into this,” he said. “I started the Substack to kind of learn about my fans and, and then I also kept thinking like, I think I have a chance to reclaim lost fans.”
Angelakos will continue to have more residencies as well as some festival dates later this year in an effort to continue this musical exploration. It’s a journey that’s both personal and professional for Angelakos – and it’s one he’s decided to share as a work in progress as he searches for what Passion Pit sounds like in 2025.
“Songs made available today may not be made available the next-it is an ever-evolving, iterative project that rejects the notion that everything has to be [a] masterpiece, a final product, or the only version audiences should hear,” Angelakos wrote on Substack. “We are here because of our audiences, and music is a conversation, not a lecture.”
This article was originally published on WBUR.org.
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