Photos and review of MusicFestNW 2012, Thursday September 6 with Flying Lotus and Passion Pit. Check out our photos and review of Against Me! and Andrew Jackson Jihad from Wednesday.

Passion Pit: The Boston electro-poppers capped off the second night of their two night stand at Crystal Ballroom Thursday. Whether or not lead man Michael Angelakos was serious or just feeding the crowd ego, he let everyone know that “TONIGHT’s crowd is so much better than last night”. Overall, I think the two night stand might have hurt their attendance, as a not-quite-packed Crystal Ballroom seemed to lack the typical full-house, floor-a-bouncin ethos of a regular MFNW Crystal show. A number of Portlanders commented to me with a bit of disappointment at Passion Pit being a headliner. Anyhow, that being said, Passion Pit did put on a much better set than I expected, and a much improved set from when I last saw them at Sasquatch. Additionally, it’s good to see that Michael’s mental health seems to have stabilized and Passion Pit is able to deliver their new Gossamer material live to eager audiences. They still had the crowd dancing and wowed by their well-timed, upbeat light show.

Flying Lotus: Steve Ellison aka Flying Lotus was one of our five bands to see at MusicFestNW 2012. And it seems we weren’t the only ones with that mentality. Upon arriving to Wonder Ballroom, we found a line about forty fans deep. Fortunately, while debating if MusicFest had begun to reach critical mass by this year, the line picked up and we only had to wait about 30 minutes. *Hopefully this is the case for future headline shows, because easy acces to great acts in top-notch venues has been one of the biggest perks of MFNW. Now, every show I’ve gone to at Wonder Ballroom during the warm, early September nights of MusicFest has been sweaty, hot, damp and sweaty. Flying Lotus was no exception, and my camera immediately fogged up upon entry. I think that’s a pretty good metaphor. FlyLo set the crowd off with a great mix of older material, regular dancehall staples (including Damien Marley’s “Welcome to Jamrock”), new material from his upcoming album Until the Quiet Comes and even a remix of Frank Ocean‘s ‘Thinking of You”. Overall, I noticed how well FlyLo has been able to meld these ranging tunes into one, fairly seamless sort of set. The “Thinking of You” remix was stellar, and he said to watch for a free download of it next week via Twitter once it’s finished. We only got about a 60 second taste. The new Quiet Comes material was also excellent and only has me more excited for that album. We didn’t get too many full cuts of the new material, but from what Steve did play, it seems much groovier than some of his more heady–but equally awesome–tunes.

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