It’s always nice to be pleasantly surprised by an opening act you’ve never heard before, and Mayer Hawthorne and The County was an interesting band to open for Passion Pit’s show at Congress. These guys played a soulful set of throwback Motown songs, completely dressed to the part. So I took the opportunity to crack my knuckles, so to speak, to prepare for Passion Pit.

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“Thanks everyone, for making this our biggest show YET!”

If selling out Congress Theater wasn’t Passion Pit’s biggest show yet — not counting last year’s Lollapalooza — I’d like to know what was. It’s hard to guesstimate just how many tickets are needed to sell out one of the largest concert theater halls in Chicago.

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So this is more of a warmup for me, considering it was only Thursday. But Berlin was hosting a whole flurry of DJs including from Passion Pit and Brazilian Girls, so it seemed like a great way to crack my knuckles in preparation for the upcoming weekend. In fact, I think most people there were of the same mindset.

The thing I like about Berlin is it makes my job easy — it’s open til 4 AM and the drinks are poured with a heavy hand. There’s nearly 100 photos of people dancing and drinking til the wee hours. If you were there, chances are your mug is in the Lollapalooza Pre-Party gallery. Click the photo to find out.