Portishead
PNYC: Roseland NYC Live
[Go Beat/London]
Rating: 7.6
"They're dark, they're spooky, they're emotional. Ladies and gentlemen
of New York City... presenting Portishead!!" In a perfect world, that's
how this live record would kick off. Of course, that's not the band's
style. Rather, we hear a few seconds of the 20+ piece orchestra
tuning their instruments before the eerie whistle of "Humming" sets in,
orchestra right on its tail. Two minutes later, Geoff Barrow's trademark
slow- motion hip-hop groove bursts in, followed by Beth Gibbons' emotive,
whispery vocals.
Dramatic? There's no doubt about it. This is a band that clearly takes
themselves, their music, and their performances very seriously. And
naturally, they went for the full effect on July 24, 1997 at New York
City's Roseland Ballroom. Pitched as a "one- night only special live
engagement," the show sold out almost immediately. They brought their
orchestra, they brought their horn section, they brought their drama,
and PNYC documents the performance beautifully.
The album sees Portishead elegantly blow through 11 songs culled from
their 1994 debut Dummy and last year's self- titled release with
decidedly awesome results. The songs from Portishead are relatively
straight- forward as they were performed purely as an introduction to the
album which wasn't to be released for another two months at the time of
this concert. The songs pulled from Dummy, on the other hand, are
executed beautifully, most notably "Sour Times," which starts off gently
and climaxes with Gibbons practically screaming the lyrics, her vocals
altered electronically.
I've been searching endlessly for a bootleg of this show, and now I can
finally quit looking. I got it on CD, baby! And I didn't spend any $20,
either. Get it while the gettin's good.
-Ryan Schreiber