Passion Pit (photo by Lilian Min)

Luckily for the considerable audience, that wasn’t the case.

Opening the show was Pepper Rabbit, who took the stage with real enthusiasm and charm.

While the lead singer sometimes tried to reach notes that weren’t going to happen, the audience gamely embraced the clearly overjoyed group through their set.

Next up was We Barbarians, who took the sleepily joyful mood from the set before and shook it up. Staggered, coarse guitar lines mixed with booming drums and vocals; the crowd responded by cheering and rocking out, especially during the last few songs.

Afterwards, Mister Heavenly came on stage, greeted by an incredible wave of piercing shrieks. The band’s instrumentals and vocals were solid if a bit generic, but most of the attention focused on Michael Cera, of “Arrested Development,” “Juno,” and “Scott Pilgrim” fame, among other acting projects.

While Mr. Cera certainly knew how to play the bass, one could not help but feel that his presence detracted from the other musicians, made up of other career musicians like Honus Honus from Man Man and Nick Thorburn of The Unicorns and Islands.

Then, in a relatively quick turnover, the lights settled into a deep blue haze, and Passion Pit took the stage.

Passion Pit’s music grew out of an intimate project: one man’s Valentine’s Day gift to his girlfriend. Now, with a much larger audience, the fear is that the group might lose its winning musical appeal.

Not so: as soon as the band took the stage, the Palladium erupted in cheers of euphoria.

Confession: this reviewer wakes up every morning to “Sleepyhead,” but as a great man once said, “It’s not even a big deal.” In fact, most of the crowd was very familiar with the Boston band’s oeuvre, a fact that stood out once the set began.

Passion Pit played through most of their two releases – Chunk of Change and Manners – with few real variations from the album versions of the songs.

Which was just fine with audience members, who seemed to know every lyric to every song. From the gleeful shouts in “I’ve Got Your Number” to the remarkably catchy chorus in “To Kingdom Come,” every word out of Michael Angelakos’ mouth was matched by the audience.

More popular tunes like “The Reeling” and “Make Light” sent the crowd into a frenzy, and both levels of the Palladium were buzzing with people soaking in the candy-hued stage set and Angelakos’ enthusiastic stage presence.

There weren’t many surprises during Passion Pit’s set, save for an errant bra thrown early in the set on stage by a zealous fan (Angelakos politely ignored it and later tried to return it to the crowd) and a lovely cover of The Cranberries’ “Dreams.”

Finally, around midnight, Passion Pit delivered an expected but rousing rendition of “Sleepyhead,” sending off the crowd in spectacular and appropriate fashion.

So their set went off without a hitch or a guest (despite rumors that Cera would join Passion Pit for a song or two), but with a limited repertoire like theirs, Passion Pit delivered a safely enjoyable performance, with fans from before reveling in the faithful live translations of their favorite tracks.

And with the shimmer of the music still hovering in the air, the crowd shuffled out into the windy Hollywood landscape, making the trek home to nurse their sleepy heads.

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