Chairlift and Passion Pit Entertainment Art Apple Store on Michigan Avenue Chicago, IL August 6, 2009

Now I’m not that much older than the target audience for Apple’s pre-Lollapalooza show featuring Chairlift and Passion Pit with most looking to be early freshman to sophomores in high school. Being in my mid-twenties we should have at least a little common overlap in our musical taste. So how come I’m so dumbfounded that hundreds of teenagers showed up to listen to the kind of rock that only Radio Disney would be caught dead playing? Maybe I’m missing something.

At first glance, Passion Pit is your typical emo band. But when they get on stage you have to wonder where the rock went. Lead singer Michael Angelakos originally created Passion Pit as a one-man project so that he could write love songs for his girlfriend. Others soon heard his music and joined on board to become the band they are today. The best way to describe their music is somewhere between The Bee Gee’s and Culture Club. When did that became popular again among the teeny-bopper crowd I will never know.

Undeniably, the overpowering sound of the night was the synthesizer. Both bands relied heavily on the usually fairly obscure instrument to propel their show. To be fair, it worked in varying degrees. While Passion Pit used their synthesizer to make their music softer and cuddlier, Chairlift used it to embrace their avant-garde roots.

Avant-garde is nothing new for the Brooklyn based band whose music was first heard in haunted houses. That is not to say that they are gothic by any means, they just think out of the box. Their music should sound strangely familiar to anyone that has watched a John Hughes movie and remembers the 1980s when synthesizers were all the rage.

Without a doubt, the star of the night was Chairlift's lead singer and synth player Caroline Polachek. With a voice like an angel she is the spirit of the otherwise forgettable band. When she moved, the audience moved. You could tell that she felt every note that was played and sang with real emotion. If she ever went solo she would be a star instantly.

The same cannot be said for the other band members. For the most part they just sat there, posing and moving occasionally. The weakest link is guitarist Aaron Pfenning, described by MyPlay as an experimental minimalist guitar player. Personally the whole minimalist gig seems like a cop out, shouldn’t a musician be glorified in musical history for how much you play not how much you didn’t? He needs a new gig because at the moment he’s just taking up space in the band. There were multiple moments during their set that were just ruined by Pfenning’s unnecessary guitar.

It was a strange night. While Chairlift’s performance was full of promise and potential Passion Pit’s seemed a little too squeaky clean. I blame Disney pop sensations like “High School Musical” and The Jonas Brothers for taking the danger out of rock n’ roll.

Both bands later played Lollapalooza and proved they had an audience even within the plethora of musical options. Both bands packed the fans in at the Citi stage with Chairlift on Saturday afternoon and Passion Pit on Sunday. Proving that with a better venue and extended set times, the two bands can loosen up and spread their wings a little and show that they truly may have lasting power. Perhaps I will have to re-examine my original thoughts of the band or just accept the fact that I am not the right demographic.

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