Homecoming (PASSION PIT) and Halloween: You'd think that that much awesome at one time would be illegal

The weekend that we just came out of was a very important one for all of us tarheels.  This was a possibly intentional result of the coinciding of two of the most exciting events of the year for UNC-Chapel Hill.  These two events, of course, are Homecoming and Halloween. 

Our homecoming game was against William & Mary (we won, but it was a little close for comfort), and our homecoming was celebrated by inviting Passion Pit to perform on campus.  Passion Pit is a band from Massachusets that Wikipedia describes as "Electropop, Synthpop, Wonkypop, Indie Pop, Indie Rock."  In Michael speak, this translates as "awesome."

I'm a pretty big fan of Passion Pit, and I had high hopes for this show.  Needless to say, they did not disappoint.  They made my weekend with an incredible show.  Not only do they play really well live, but they're incredible performers as well.  It didn't take me long to decide that this was an amazing concert and probably the best I've seen since I saw U2.  It only really took until the third or fourth song for me to be sure.  They played "Make Light", and as soon as the main riff started up after the bells at the beginning, these incredible white lights started going off all over the stage, perfectly in time with the music, speeding up and blinding me with awesome.  As if that wasn't enough, Michael Angelakos, singer for Passion Pit, would bounce all over the stage, echoing the beats of the bass drum.  These seemingly simple things just made the concert for me.

If you know of Passion Pit at all, you've probably heard of their most famous song, "Sleepyhead".  This was the only song that my friend Nick, attending the concert with me, knew at all, even though all he knew was "sleepyhea-eaa-eaa-eaad" (that was a weird sentence).  We spent all night waiting for it, and eventually we figured it'd be the encore.  So Passion Pit said goodbye, and went off stage.  I had no idea if concerts done on university campuses followed the rules and traditions of conventional popular music concerts, so we did everything in our power to ensure that Passion Pit came back for an encore.

The entire crowd was going wild, stomping their feet and hitting the chairs in front of them.  Then Nick and I began to chant, "SLEEPYHEAD! SLEEPYHEAD! SLEEPYHEAD!"  In another minute or two Passion Pit appeared again and served up another plate of awesome, but they didn't play Sleepyhead.  Then they finished the song and the lights went out.  Immediately cheers started back up again, and Nick and I started too, "SLEEPYHEAD! SLEEPYHEAD! SLEEPYHEAD!"  This time we started hearing more people in our section, all of them joining in with our chant.  Then Passion Pit appeared again, and DIDN'T PLAY SLEEPYHEAD. Instead they played "Eyes as Candles".  This time, they started off with an incredible multi-color lightshow, illuminating Carmichael Auditorium with bright blue and red.  Yet another awesome, rousing crowd-pleaser; I absolutely loved every second.  Then the song was over, and the lights went out once more.  Almost immediately following the last note of the song, we started back up, "SLEEPYHEAD! SLEEPYHEAD! SLEEPYHEAD!" I could hear more and more people starting to join in, screaming "SLEEPYHEAD! SLEEPYHEAD! SLEEPYHEAD!"  At this point I was so totally invested, that I had no idea how I'd live with myself if they didn't play it.  I tried to distance myself from this horrible thought, and instead kept yelling "SLEEPYHEAD! SLEEPYHEAD! SLEEPYHEAD!"

Then FINALLY!  They rolled into the opening notes of "Sleepyhead", and we went wild.  I was so incredibly happy, and I wasn't even bothered by Nick's so-far-out-of-key-it-hurts belting of "SLEEPYHEA-EAA-EAA-EAAD".  To finish it all off, they repeated the instrumental synthesizer riff over and over, with countless UNC students singing along "wuuh-weu-weu-woopwedududu, wuuh-weu-weu-woopwedawuwuwuw".   Incredible.

I started out this post meaning to talk a little about Halloween as well.  Oops.  Well here's some pictures of me in costume; I might give a prize to anyone who can guess who/what I am.

keep in mind that I'm also wearing ridiculously plaid, mismatched pants.  like ridiculously. ridiculously plaid, and ridiculously mismatched.

											Incredible: 5 or 6 times      Awesome: 4     ridiculously: 4    sleepyhead: 22

social security scam robs elderly by convincing them they are dead