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He and his band – an official trio, but a septet on tour – just buried into the oddball groove of it all, not unlike the Brian Jonestown Massacre, another west coast band that once employed a tambourine player on stage. (Kirk Ohnstad fulfilled that role with P.TM.)
During an hour-long set from Portugal. The Man there was constant juxtaposition of the light and the dark, the soft and the loud. What there wasn’t was electronica: They saved that for their first CD and subsequent EPs – also slated for an upcoming EP. Their latest CD, “Church Mouth,” is a prog-rock monster, packed with difficult chord cha nges and stylistic shifts. It’s also full of esoteric imagery. They played four songs from it in concert. Gourley sang in a high, sometimes falsetto, voice, but you rarely knew what he was going on about. (You check the lyric packet on the CD cover and you learn more. (War sucks; numbness is our human condition.) After the set, we asked bassist-singer Zach Carothers about the band’s ethos and its stylistic mishmash and he said, “ We cop out and just say rock ‘n’ roll. We listen to a lot of soul, Creedence, Bill Withers….” Yep, suffice to say, Portugal. The Man, like Greg Dulli’s Twilight Singers (and a myriad of post-punk bands), try to jam sweetness, soul and spice into a smart, palatable, edgy package – with mixed results. Portugal.The Man was half-enticing, half-irritating. It wasn’t stupid. It wasn’t dull. Now, for the Harpers show RX Bandid is the headliner and Maps & Atlases open. Doors at 7. It's an all-ages show with a $15 cover.
158 Brighton Ave., Allston, 617-254-9742 www.harpersferryboston.com
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