Passion Pit, the recording moniker of Michael Angelakos, today has announced 2025 U.S. tour dates, including shows at Allston, MA's Brighton Music Hall (6/17, 6/18, 6/24, 6/25), and Austin, TX's Austin City Limits (10/5 and 10/12). He's currently in the midst of a residency at NYC's Deluxx Fluxx–he'll be playing the two shows this week on May 20th and 21st. Two more shows have been added to the NYC residency on June 4th and 5th–tickets will be on sale tomorrow.. He will be debuting new songs from his upcoming record Nine Times Your Torch Song, reimagining old favorites, and delivering unexpected covers—all live, all heartfelt. Surrounded by analog synths, acoustic guitars, and vintage keyboards, Angelakos creates a spontaneous, ever-evolving set each night.
Currently, Michael Angelakos is returning to how it all began: working and performing solo, experimenting with his sound and staying true to himself, while challenging conventions and outmolded structures. To that end, Passion Pit’s latest album, Nine Times Your Torch Song, will be released in iterative phases, and through unique recordings of live performances with additional collaborators, directly to fans. For more information, subscribe to Passion Pit’s Substack at: https://passionpitmusic.substack.com/. |
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| Tickets and more information for all of Passion Pit forthcoming live dates can be found HERE.
Passion Pit - LIVE
5/20/25 - New York, NY - Deluxx Fluxx (Residency)
5/21/25 - New York, NY - Deluxx Fluxx (Residency)
6/4/25 - New York, NY - Deluxx Fluxx (Residency)
6/5/25 - New York, NY - Deluxx Fluxx (Residency)
6/17/25 - Allston, MA - Brighton Music Hall
6/18/25 - Allston, MA - Brighton Music Hall
6/24/25 - Allston, MA - Brighton Music Hall
6/25/25 - Allston, MA - Brighton Music Hall
9/19/25 - Redmond, OR - Cascade Equinox Festival
10/5/25 - Austin, TX - Austin City Limits Festival
10/12/25 - Austin, TX - Austin City Limits Festival
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Passion Pit - Bio:
Passion Pit began as the solo project of singer-songwriter-producer Michael Angelakos. Michael would create music alone in his dorm room in Boston, and then in an apartment in Cambridge where he lived with four other friends in 2006. The songs would be shown to his roommates and friends. Angelakos self-released the Chunk of Change EP, which included the songs “Batty Lashes” and “Tons of Guns,” and sold them for approximately seven dollars at his first show on March 20th, 2007 in the Cabaret at Emerson College. Unfortunately for the few purchasers of the EP, Angelakos had hastily applied a sticker that was meant to be used to label folders, not cds. The rectangular sticker damaged several customers’ computers, but none of them asked for money to repair the computer. He did, however, give them a new disc. He still owes his friend Colin Pratt approximately $250 for the printing and overnighting of the record sleeves.
Ian Hultquist and Adam Lavinsky, who at the time were Angelakos’ friends and frequent collaborators, spent months convincing him to make a band. Months later, he acquiesced, and the band went on to sell out every show they played in Boston. Hultquist, Ayad Al Adhamy, Jeff Apruzzese, And Nate Donmoyer joined Michael as Passion Pit for live performances from there on out. They were named Best New Band by the Boston Phoenix, released a 7” featuring “Sleepyhead” and “Better Things,” (which would replace “Batty Lashes and “Tons of Guns” on the official release of Chunk of Change), and toured with far too much heavy equipment. And little discipline, to boot.
Following the 7” release, in 2008, and after being picked up by Frenchkiss, Chunk of Change was officially released. This release, and its hit "Sleepyhead," solidified Passion Pit and launched the band into years of success and near-constant evolution. “Sleepyhead” has remained an iconic track, going 3x Platinum; a Passion Pit x Sofi Tukker remix of the song was released in March of 2025 to instant success.
In the spring and early summer of 2008, while working on demos for what would become Passion Pit’s debut album Manners with Grant Wheeler, Matthew Young, and Angelica Bess in Brooklyn--and a three-week Piano’s residency in Manhattan--Michael signed to Sony Music Entertainment for worldwide and Columbia Records for US releases respectively for three full-length records as Passion Pit. The licensing of the initially self-released Chunk of Change gave Michael extraordinary leverage and creative control while working with Sony.
Passion Pit released Manners on his birthday on May 19th in 2009. It sold over 30,000 copies in the first week. With a rapidly-increasing live following, leading to three Terminal Five shows, being a highlighted band on the Big Day Out Tour in Australia and New Zealand (where Manners went gold in its first week), and to what many have considered to be among one of the most iconic sunset-slot performances at Coachella in 2010, the band toured for what seemed like forever.
The follow-up, Gossamer, was released in 2012 and landed number four on the Billboard charts in the US, as well as Top 20 in Australia and Canada. Michael and his tumultuous in both his life leading up to and in making Gossamer were painfully portrayed in Pitchfork’s first Cover Story feature by Larry Fitzmaurice. While he was interviewed at a time when he was unwell and doesn’t reflect who he truly is, it was the first time Angelakos opened up about his life with the disorder. His advocacy would later earn him the Didi Hirsch Erasing the Stigma Award in 2013.
“Take A Walk”, Gossamer’s standout single well over 2x platinum and the album itself was officially reported as Gold in 2020. The music video for “Carried Away,” directed by Brewer was a highlight for Michael, as well as the video for “Cry Like a Ghost” directed by the Daniels (The Zebro theme song, a bonus on the EPs in physical form, was form a comedy troupe that included Daniel Schienert, who had Michael score a few projects of his while they both attended Emerson).
Passion Pit's third album, Kindred, was released in April 2015, landing in the Top 3 in the U.S., and top 30 in Australia and the UK.
Throughout his success and creative evolution as an artist, Angelakos faced the challenges of managing bipolar disorder (or Manic-Depression) amidst a chaotic and taxing industry that any artist, with or without a mental disability, typically finds just as difficult. He became, and continues to be, a leading mental health advocate and dedicates much of his energy to helping others. In 2017, he formed the Wishart Group, an organization created to provide support for musicians’ mental health. Also in 2017, Passion Pit released Tremendous Sea of Love for free via Twitter with the hashtag #weneedscience, to raise awareness for the Wishart Group– a viral campaign that trended worldwide.
Currently, Michael Angelakos is returning to how it all began: working and performing solo, experimenting with his sound and staying true to himself, while challenging conventions and outmolded structures. To that end, Passion Pit’s latest album, Nine Times Your Torch Song, will be released in iterative phases, and through unique recordings of live performances with additional collaborators, directly to fans. For more information, subscribe to Passion Pit’s Substack at: https://passionpitmusic.substack.com/. |
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