Portishead
Greek Theatre - Oct 21, 2011
review by facebooksucks

I didn't "discover" Portishead 'til 2005. I quote the term because of what a joke it is that I only just got into them at that point in time. I quickly became obsessed. That being said, here is my review of the phenomenal show at The Greek last Friday.

It started with them strolling on stage and getting down to business. No fuss, just unleashed in the understated, precise and mesmerizing way that is their own. Not soon enough in my opinion, as the opening band sucked. I had amazing seats, 3rd row center, down in the pit. The sound was unbelievable, seriously gifted sound engineers. I've been to shows at The Greek since I was 16 and this was the first time I was actually able to benefit from the acoustics. Couldn't have asked for a better show to experience it.

I feel most close to Third…er, their third album. People were into it but not as much as when the older songs were played. Maybe some of them were disappointed because about half the songs were from Third. I love all their stuff, but, man, to start with Silence, unbelievable. The highlights for me were: Silence, Magic Doors, Machine Gun, Over, Glory Box, Threads. Check out the pirate video of Over on YouTube.

The scratch solo, holy fuck. The bass on Machine Gun, my hair was literally vibrating. Who knew middle-aged, British white people were so badass. I've listened to Glory Box at least 1 trillion times, but, it is a whole other thing to see Beth sing that visceral plea a few hundred feet in front of you and connect with its urgency.

I was struck by the fact that there wasn't a lot of spazzy, rocking out going on. Everyone was just standing still, held at attention by the monstrosity of the music. You could feel the energy churning over and over in your body. I believe Beth said a few words maybe twice or three times, all indistinguishable. But, who cares when her lyrical and vocal prowess doesn’t really require a conversation with the audience. The visuals added another dimension, I looked up a couple times to the stars to see if I was really there, I felt like I was orbiting in outerspace.

Overall, I find it hard to describe. Baby-making music for hipsters and E-tards? It really was otherworldly, phenomenal, mesmerizing...I don’t know...a life-affirming moment, I am only fully starting to process everything now, 5 days after. In short, fucking awesome, I want more, more I say!

posted Oct 26, 2011
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