Photo by Jason Nocito
So much for Midwestern Manners. Passion Pit lost approximately 75-percent of their gear Friday night when a Chicago storm swept through North Coast Music Festival, forcing the Cambridge-born electro-pop band to perform a DJ set instead. With no way to repair their damaged synths, guitars, and other instruments while on the road, Michael Angelakos and crew DJ’d instead, and spun similar sets in Calgary and Edmonton over the weekend. The band says via twitter that they’ll be “fully operational” by mid-week.
Of course, Passion Pit is scheduled to play a headlining homecoming show this Sunday at the second night of the Boston Calling Music Festival at City Hall Plaza.
In a statement titled “Nightmare Nation” and posted to the Passion Pit tumblr on Saturday, the band wrote that their “gear was completely annihilated by weather. 70mph winds blew tarps and covers off of our equipment, allowing enormous amounts of rain to destroy a large portion of what we now know, as of today, to be approximately 75% of our gear.”
The statement went on to say: “As a touring band that is proud to actually perform electro-pop as opposed to just pressing play, using many keyboards, both analog and digital, this is a nightmare we’ve had for quite some time. It’s almost incredible that it hasn’t happened already.”
Passion Pit have a Live On Letterman appearance planned for Wednesday, and they appear to be confident their gear will be replaced by then.
The DJ sets were just for fun. As of now, it looks like our gear is on the mend or being replaced. We will be fully operational by mid-week.
— Passion Pit (@passionpit) September 2, 2013
Thanks to Chicago, Calgary, and Edmonton for being so understanding. It's been a rough few days but you all made it much better. Next time!
— Passion Pit (@passionpit) September 2, 2013
Read the full statement by the band below, and be sure to check out our extensive Boston Calling festival guide here.
Hi, everyone.
Last night in Chicago, our gear was completely annihilated by weather. 70mph winds blew tarps and covers off of our equipment, allowing enormous amounts of rain to destroy a large portion of what we now know, as of today, to be approximately 75% of our gear. As a touring band that is proud to actually perform electro-pop as opposed to just pressing play, using many keyboards, both analog and digital, this is a nightmare we’ve had for quite some time. It’s almost incredible that it hasn’t happened already.
Well, it happened, and now we’re doing our best to recover.
Today in Calgary — and tomorrow in Edmonton — we will be doing a kind of “DJ set” in place of performing. This is because we really cared about coming to these new territories in Canada. We felt that at least attempting to have some fun and connecting with our fans was a much better idea than canceling altogether. Again, we are a band obsessed with performance, and DJing is not close to what a real Passion Pit performance really is. However, that being said, we look forward to at least showing our fans, the promoters, and everyone involved, that we actually care.
As of now, our gear is being serviced. We are replacing a lot of equipment and our crew is working very hard at salvaging whatever still works and replacing equipment that’s been totally destroyed.
We want everyone to the know that, considering what we’ve been through, this is a setback but a serious one. We do intend to return to Calgary, Edmonton, and Winnipeg at some point in the future to play proper shows as Passion Pit. And to all of our fans that were in Chicago, those disappointed that we couldn’t actually properly perform, please understand that this was completely out of our hands. We did as much as we could. We appreciate your support and understanding.
We look forward to the next week and months to come: Letterman, the Pier shows, and then several months of touring to follow. In these settings, we will obviously be playing as Passion Pit proper, an outfit we have worked tirelessly to perfect and present to both our core fans and a growing fan-base that we care very much about.
So, yes, yet another setback, but we’re used to them by now. We’ve gotten through many before and we’ll most assuredly get through this one.
Again, many thanks for your understanding and patience.
Michael, Ian, and Jeff
