Portugal. The Man Concert Review & Summer Playlist Wk. 5

Portugal. The Man. House of Blues. July 27, 2017. 

Portugal. The Man hit the stage at the Anaheim House of Blues this past Thursday before heading up to LA for a couple sold out shows. Fresh off the release of their 8th album, Woodstock, that came out in mid June, they were touring a mix of their new songs and classic favorites.

They opened with a heavy instrumental segment that merged into Pink Floyd’s “Another Brick in the Wall” which at first kind of annoyed me until it made a cool segway into one of my favorites from their last album Evil Friends. I have been getty kind of frustrated with bands doing covers lately, especially for an opening or closing number. I have so many songs that I want to hear from a band’s original discography that I don’t need them playing someone else’s music when I am here to hear theirs. This bugged me with The Rolling Stones doing “Come Together” at Desert Trip because they have such an extensive discography and most of my favorite songs are so underplayed. Enough of my mini rant though, the rest of the show was actually so so good. “Another Brick in The Wall” quickly became “Purple Yellow Red and Blue”which got everyone in the venue singing along and jumping in excitement and ready for the rest of their set.

I didn’t really know a lot of the songs off their new album besides “Feel it Still’ that has been getting a lot of airtime for its catchy beat and high pitch vocals, so I listened to the album a couple days leading up to the show to get a feel for it. I won’t lie, didn’t really love it so I didn’t know what to expect for the concert. They are going in a more modern day pop direction than the funky rock sound I love, but you can definitely hear a progression in each of their albums.

This follows up their 2013 Evil Friends really well which they played a lot from in the first half of their show. “Waves” played with awesome blue lasers flashing through the audience and an ocean scape projected on the bandmates and they had a pink scape similar to the album cover of Satanic Satanist when they played “People Say” I got to hear a handful of my favorites playing all back to back from a variety of their albums which was a nice surprise because I thought it would be mostly their new tracks.

I think that they definitely oversold the show because the halls were all packed with people and blocking the walkways. House of Blues recently moved from Downtown Disney just a block over so the venue is nice and just as big if not better, but the crowd control was lacking. There’s only so many times you can take drunk people elbowing you to get through or stepping on your toes trying “to get by you” and really just stopping in your space before you need to get some air. We went out into the lounge area that was mostly empty and could see the show on different TVs around the walls. We left after about an hour and a half of their set, having been their since 7 them to come on some time after 9.

All in all, they sounded amazing and I have always had great experiences seeing them live because they sound better in person to me. Michael isn’t the biggest fan of theirs but he agreed that they sound really good live and they kill it with their instrumentals.

With all that, Portugal The Man is getting featured a few times for this week’s With Wildflowers Summer playlist additions on Spotify.

1. “Sea of Air” … Portugal. The Man (I listened to this on repeat, along with the rest of Evil Friends the summer it came out in 2013. That was the first summer Michael and I were dating and my first summer being in college so it brings me right back to that every time I hear it) 

2. “Feel it Still” … Portugal. The Man

3. “Put a Light on” … The Generationals

4. “Circuital” … My Morning Jacket

5. “The Home” … Portugal. The Man

6. “Cool Dry Place” …  Traveling Wilburys

7. “Wish I Knew You” … The Revivalists

8. “Jackie and Wilson” … Hozier

9. “How Long Must I Wait” … Dr. Dog

10. “No No No” … Beirut