2 [LIVE REVIEW] Portugal. The Man @ Showbox at the Market

Review, Photos, and Videos by Palmer Sather

Portugal. The Man / AutoVaughn - Showbox at the Market (2/16/10)

When I heard that Portugal. The Man was having a free concert I quickly cleared my calendar and made that the priority of the evening. Despite the fact that it was a Tuesday, there was no way I was passing on the chance to guzzle a few tall cans at the free show put on by Rhapsody Rocks Seattle.

Opening for P.TM was a band called AutoVaughn from Nashville TN. I hadn’t heard a lot of their stuff before that night, and the stuff that I had listened to; I really wasn’t too impressed. So my expectations for this band were not high to say the least. Fortunately though, it wasn’t long into their set before I realized I had clearly underestimated them. With the lead vocalist Darren Edwards swigging on beer in between songs and making comments about being high on mushrooms and looking for weed while in town, that tied in with clean and catchy songs capped off by what seemed to be about a 10 minute jam consisting of violence, sweet riffs and a whole lot of fun made for a pretty impressive set.

By the time P. TM had taken the stage and was getting ready to play their first song I looked around and saw a nearly packed room full of smiling fans and sporadic clouds of smoke; I knew this was going to be good. What I got…..was even better.

For a little over an hour P. TM proceeded to rock the Showbox with a mix of both old and new material consisting of sweet instrumental solos, psychedelic vibes, and an overall great sound that only comes from truly great musicians. Lead vocalist and guitarist John Gourley definitely added a somewhat mysterious feeling to the band, hiding behind a dark corduroy hat that was pulled down over the majority of his face, it left people in the crowd curious as to who was really behind that amazing voice and those sweet guitar riffs.

After the band played their last song and was exiting the stage the crowd immediately went into an uproar and started chanting “Por-Tu-Gal” leaving the band no other option to come back and play some more tunes. I can’t wait to see them again this year at Sasquatch!