Passion Pit

Passion Pit | October 6, 2025 | Emo’s

When Michael Angelakos walked onto the Emo’s stage Monday night, the crowd expected nostalgia. What they got was an unraveling.

The show opened with a warped “Sleepyhead,” unrecognizable until Angelakos held the final “heaaaad” and half the crowd finally caught on. From there, he and the band twisted Manners and Gossamer songs into new shapes. Funky, freeform, sometimes falling apart mid-jam. Think Random Access Memories meets Dan Deacon.

That transformation has been brewing for months. Angelakos’ “Michael Angelakos Is Passion Pit” residencies in Boston and L.A. were public experiments: part performance, part workshop. On his Substack, he’s described this iteration as a rejection of digital isolation and a return to something tactile. What’s emerging is a version of Passion Pit that treats reinvention not as nostalgia, but as survival. 

Some fans didn’t stick around. The early walkouts were noticeable once it became clear there’d be no faithful “Carried Away.” But those who stayed leaned in. Midway through, Angelakos paused, visibly moved. “I didn’t think anyone still cared,” he said before launching into a stripped-down “Little Secrets”.  

The timing added weight. Passion Pit’s ACL Nights set landed the same week Emo’s hosted Phantogram and Magdalena Bay, part of a run resurrecting late-2000s dance-indie staples. seems intent on reframing that era’s neon nostalgia for a looser, more tactile world. Angelakos’ raw, improvisational approach fit perfectly.

Not everything landed. Some transitions wobbled, and moments felt more like therapy than performance. But that’s the point. For the first time in years, Passion Pit is authentically present even if it’s uncertain and unfiltered.

As the show wrapped up, Angelakos dropped to his knees, head in his hands, overcome.

Then he rose, faced the crowd, and bowed alongside his bandmates. It was messy and human which is exactly what this new version of Passion Pit seems to be chasing. It may be too early to tell, but Angelakos found what might just become Passion Pit 2.0.