Passion Pit/Mister Heavenly at the Fox Theater in Pomona

A buzz inside the Fox Theater in Pomona was immediately palpable upon entering the venue. The stacked line-up of Pepper Rabbit, We Barbarians, Mister Heavenly and Passion Pit had filled the theater and the line of kids waiting to get to the floor stretched back to the entrance doors. Was everyone here really waiting for Passion Pit or did word spread sufficiently that Michael Cera was playing bass for Mister Heavenly?

Pepper Rabbit came out first with their unique
brand of folk pop weaving together such instruments as a ukulele,
keyboards, bass and drums. Xander Singh switched effortlessly between
between the ukulele and the keyboards while working through songs off
their debut album Beauregard. Pepper Rabbit made the most of their twenty five minute set and garnered plenty of cheers from the crowd.

We
Barbarians took no prisoners from the initial drum smash by Nathan
Warkentin. The Long Beach-based band continues to tour on their
excellent debut album There's This There's That. Davey Quon
thrashed away at his guitar coming to the front of the stage
occasionally to engage the crowd while Derek Van Heule flattened the
audience with his Gibson ripper bass. We Barbarians just released a new
seven inch vinyl record on Mister Mausters, which happens to be run by
Matt Maust of the Cold War Kids. 

Screams of
“Michael!” “Canada!” and “Mister Heavenly!” soon started to emanate
from the crowd. Mister Heavenly should be receiving most of its press
from its all star line up of Honus Honus from Man Man, Joe Plummer from
Modest Mouse and Nick Thorburn from Islands. The fact that actor
Michael Cera joined the band on bass really added some extra spotlight
to the band. The members of the band came out to double check their
gear except for Cera who didn't appear until the whole band walked on
stage.

Utilizing a Vox phantom bass, Cera was
fully focused on his role as bass player looking at the notes he was
playing and tapping his foot in time with the beat. Thorburn was madman
on stage knocking over his microphone stand and writhing on the floor
while playing guitar. Honus thrashed on his keyboard while trading off
vocals with Thorburn. Mister Heavenly put on a fine performance given
it was their fourth show together.

Not one
soul left after Mister Heavenly played. The crowd was clearly there for
Passion Pit and they naturally received the loudest ovation once they
hit the stage. Crowd surfing broke out immediately upon the tidal waves
of synthesizers that poured over the audience. The same line up will
play the Hollywood Palladium this Tuesday in case you want to check out
Michael Cera in action.