The lights dimmed at the sold out on Saturday as a loud recording of the Righteous Brothers’ “Unchained Melody” blasted through the venue. Lasers began to flash on a huge mountain-like cutout towering over the stage. The well-known classic slowly faded into a roar of ’s newest hit “Purple Yellow Red and Blue.” With the stage drenched in hallucinatory lights and concurring art-work by vocalist/guitarist John Gourley, it was obvious right away that Portugal. The Man would not fall short on its promise of a mind-blowing live show.
While Portugal. The Man is touring in support of its latest, Danger-Mouse produced album, “Evil Friends,” the psych-rock group played a timeline of songs such as “So American,” “Gunn & Dogs” and “Modern Jesus” from earlier records. And along with playing a spectrum of material, Portugal delighted the audience with a number of little surprises in the 100-minute set. The show included covers of unexpected songs like Ghostface Killa’s “A Kilo,” “Dayman” from “It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia,” Etta James’ “I’d Rather Go Blind” and numerous Beatles tunes.
But even the surprise covers felt scripted, with song transitions fading seamlessly from one to the next without any banter. The fantastic light/art show kept the focus of the stage on the background rather than the dimly lit musicians, which was either an attempt to keep the emphasis on the music or hide the tour-tired disengagement of the band. Regardless, Portugal kept the harmonies flowing as the crowd sang along to almost every song.
Heavy with Beatles-in-their-acid-years influences, Portugal jammed for a non-stop 11 songs of long solos and non-vocal interludes, turning the room into a trance-like rock fest. Gourley’s echoey falsetto vocals played well through most of the songs, but were sometimes lost in heavy guitar riffs and strong synths. A humble Gourley messed up a few lines on “When the War Ends” and followed with a light-hearted apology to an obviously forgiving crowd.
The five-piece crew slowed it down a bit with “Sea of Air” and transitioned to the humorous dance jam “Hip Hop Kids” before making a full cycle return to a reprise of “Purple Yellow Red and Blue.” Then, Portugal left the stage to screams for an encore. The band quickly returned to the stage for “Chicago” and “The Devil,” which smoothly transitioned to a rendition of the Beatles’ “Helter Skelter” and into a beautiful and lengthy “Sleep Forever” that trailed into “Hey Jude.”
Follow our news and updates on , our relationship status on and our search history on . Or send us a telegram.
Pop music blogger Laina Roberts is a Denver-based writer and new contributor to Reverb. Read more of her writing on and follow her on .
Lisa Higginbotham is a Denver photographer and a regular contributor to Reverb.
