Portishead @ ThebartonTheatre, Adelaide (17/11/2011)

Fri 18th Nov, 2011 in Gig Reviews

When talking to friends about Portishead playing Thebarton Theatre I compared the event to the blooming of the Corpse Flower or Titan Arum, a rare event that will only happen once a lifetime.

I agree that is a slightly dramatic and pretentious statement but that leads me to the opening of New Yorkers Mercury Rev’s support set. Much like my introduction the indie rockers began in an unnecessarily grandiose way, with epic arm gestures and drawn out cymbal use which seemed a little inflated for the support act. Front man Johnathan Donahue tried his very best to convince the audience of his rock star status but was outshone by his band mates who are really quite brilliant musicians. Whilst the group’s energetic indie rock is nothing special they are clearly a well travelled, professional unit.

A droning pulse accompanied by a large ‘P’ on a giant screen began Portishead’s set as the band moved into Silence, the opening track from the group’s latest offering, 2008’s Third. The usual three piece doubled for the live show to include a drummer, percussionist, keyboard and two guitars. The crowd reception for the opening track from the debut Dummy, Mysterons, indicated which record the majority of the crowd wanted to hear most. The screen behind the stage offered up various footage and effects, sometimes of the happenings on stage, sometimes of the band’s favoured short films such as the socially aware animation piece during The Rip.

The chorus of Sour Times received one of the bigger sing-a-longs of the night, but not enough for vocalist Beth Gibbons to offer more than a few small thankyous in between songs. The beautiful intricacies of Gibbons voice were made obvious during one of the set highlights, the sullen Wandering Star, which featured only vocals, bass and guitar effects.

Portishead would have to be one of the only bands left outside of the hip-hop genre that can still make DJ scratches sound cool, which they did during the groove heavy, bass driven Over. This was followed by the silky smooth, ever popular Glory Box which transformed the mainly still crowd into a swaying, grooving pit of potential baby making horn dogs, it is after all one of the sexiest songs ever written.

The main set ended with a powerful version of Threads with the group returning for an encore consisting of Roads and We Carry On, the perfect way to end a very special, once in a lifetime, evening.