{"id":2004,"date":"2011-11-09T10:37:49","date_gmt":"2011-11-09T15:37:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.gadflyonline.com\/wpblog\/?p=2004"},"modified":"2012-07-15T19:56:09","modified_gmt":"2012-07-15T23:56:09","slug":"all-the-people-say-portugal-the-man-is-back","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/gadflyonline.com\/home\/index.php\/all-the-people-say-portugal-the-man-is-back\/","title":{"rendered":"All the People Say: Portugal. The Man is Back"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Having recovered their van and equipment after it was stolen earlier this year at Lollapalooza, Portugal. The Man was back on the road and making their way across the country for their 2011-2012 tour. On Wednesday night, hundreds of fans stood shoulder-to-shoulder on the main floor of the theater, cheering the arrival of Portugal. The Man. Over the course of the night, fans cheered, jumped, waved their lighters (actual lighters, not just cell phones), demanded an encore, and even had a couple brief stints of crowd surfing. Apparently Portugal. The Man hadn\u2019t expected such a warm welcome. As vocalist John Gourley put it, looking out from the stage to the standing-room-only theater, \u201cThis is fucking crazy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Portugal. The Man, whose music has been described as \u201cpsychedelic rock alternative,\u201d offered a never-ending stream of music, transitioning directly from one song into the next, only speaking to the crowd two or three times the entire performance. And their music speaks for itself. Known for their long musical interludes, sometimes playing a steady stream of lyric-free music for up to seven minutes, Portugal. The Man combined their sound with a fantastic light show and fog machines.\u00a0 The lights and the fog were fun, but PTM can stand on its own through pure talent and musicality. Rare among contemporary bands, PTM sounds better live than they do on CD and boasts a range of musical talent \u2013 from acoustics to powerful electric guitars and mellow vocals to heartfelt ballads. Innovative and fresh but with a distinctive Beatles influence, Portugal. The Man\u2019s music is built on guitar, bass, drums, keyboards, and occasionally a tambourine, bongos, or even maracas.<\/p>\n

Portugal. The Man performed songs from their new album In the Mountain in the Cloud<\/em>, including \u201cSo American\u201d and \u201cSleep Forever\u201d as well as some favorites from previously released albums. \u201cThe Sun\u201d and \u201cPeople Say\u201d from the 2009 album The Satanic Satanist<\/em>, and \u201c1989\u201d and \u201cLay Me Back Down\u201d from the 2008 release Censored Colors<\/em>. Though they don\u2019t claim to be a political band, many of their songs contain unmistakable social commentary.\u00a0 The song \u201cPeople Say\u201d, for example, has obvious cultural implications and, along with \u201cThe Sun,\u201d received one of the best crowd responses at the Jefferson.<\/p>\n

People Say:<\/p>\n

Save me, I can\u2019t be saved, I won\u2019t.
\nI\u2019m a president\u2019s son, I don\u2019t need no soul.
\nAll the soldiers say
\n\u201cIt\u2019ll be alright.
\nWe may make it through the war
\nif we make it through the night.\u201d
\nAll the people, they say:
\n\u201cWhat a lovely day, yeah, we won the war.
\nMay have lost a million men but we got a million more.\u201d
\nAll the people, they say.<\/p>\n

Portugal. The Man is based in Portland, Oregon and features John Gourley, Jason Sechrist, Ryan Neighbors, Zachary Carothers, and Noah Gersh. Gourley and Carothers were born and raised in Wasilla, Alaska (the same town Sarah Palin has made famous, though if there is any doubt about PTM\u2019s political views, Gourley posted a blog in 2008 entitled \u201cPalin, Because We Don\u2019t Need It\u201d). Founded by John Gourley and Zachary Carouthers, PTM has released its sixth album in July of this year, In the Mountains in the Clouds<\/em>. The band recently made their national television debut on Conan O\u2019Brien in September and are continuing their tour across the United States and Europe.<\/p>\n

Alberta Cross opened the show with their own musical talents. The perfect group to complement Portugal. The Man, Alberta Cross is based in New York, though both founding members hail from Europe. They were energetic and electric, and played songs with titles like \u201cRise from the Shadows,\u201d \u201cAtx,\u201d and \u201cMoney for the Weekend.\u201d Alberta Cross was founded by Petter Ericson Stakee and Terry Wolfers, and recently released their third album in September of this year, The Rolling Thunder EP<\/em>. They will continue on tour with Portugal. The Man.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Having recovered their van and equipment after it was stolen earlier this year at Lollapalooza, Portugal. The Man was back on the road and making their way across the country for their 2011-2012 tour. On Wednesday night, hundreds of fans stood shoulder-to-shoulder on the main floor of the theater, cheering the arrival of Portugal. The […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/gadflyonline.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2004"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/gadflyonline.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/gadflyonline.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/gadflyonline.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/gadflyonline.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2004"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/gadflyonline.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2004\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2962,"href":"http:\/\/gadflyonline.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2004\/revisions\/2962"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/gadflyonline.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2004"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/gadflyonline.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2004"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/gadflyonline.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2004"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}