Dan Kantor

Concert(s) Review: Portugal. The Man at the Apple Store and Bowery Ballroom 10/23/09

This past Friday I saw Portugal. The Man twice. The first show was at 7PM at the Apple Store in Soho. I found out about it a few hours before and went with Isabel. It was a good turnout, a few hundred people. They played an acoustic set and stayed on for almost an hour. It was my first time seeing them live and I was really excited for it. I first found out about them in July and have been loving them ever since. They did not disappoint one bit. You could tell they were great musicians and the lead singer’s voice is really good. The acoustic set left me wanting more. Any small doubts I had about attending the midnight show later were taken off the table. I knew I was going 100%.

Right after the show, we went downstairs and played with the new Magic Mouse. It’s pretty sweet! We then went uptown and joined some friends for dinner at Ilili. If you like middle eastern food, I highly recommend this place. The food was exceptional and the atmosphere was great. During dinner, Greg sent me an SMS and let me know he was too tired to join me. At that point, I knew I was going no matter what, despite the rain, the late start and the fact that it was way downtown. I begged Aaron to come with me and to my surprise he said yes! We headed down at 11:30, rain in full force.

We arrived at Bowery Ballroom to catch the last few songs of Temper Trap. They sounded pretty good. The place was packed. After Temper Trap ended a lot of people left though. Portugal. The Man came on at 12:15. At that point we had made our way up front and were about 5 rows back. They sounded amazing. As great as they were in the acoustic set, they were even better now. They totally rocked it out. It reminded me of when I saw My Morning Jacket last year. I had really liked their albums, but seeing them live blew me away. It was the same for Portugal. These guys flat out know how to play music. Despite the fact that it was kind of late I didn’t want it to end. The played until 1:45. I would have stayed until 4. I guess I will just have to see them the next time they come to NYC!

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