Portugal The Man ptm2021-09-04
2021-09-04 Napa Valley Expo
Title
Portugal. The Man Live at Bottlerock Festival on 2021-09-04
description
(I know nothing about P.TM, so I've kept quiet and let the excellent taper known to the world for his Coachella site do the talking. His review's below the tracklist, which has most of the songs transitioning into each other.) Track listing: [native song intro] [ Beavis and Butthead intro] For Whom the Bell Tolls [Metallica cover] Live in the Moment Creep in a T-Shirt In Bloom [Nirvana cover] Got It All (This Can't Be Living Now) Modern Jesus Moonage Daydream [David Bowie cover] And I Evil Friends Day Man [from the TV series It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia ] So American Feel It Still Another Brick in the Wall [Pink Floyd cover] Purple Yellow Red and Blue 4 and 14 from Woodstock ; 5, 8, 11, and 16 from Evil Friends ; 7 and 13 from In the Mountain in the Cloud ; 10 from Censored Colors . This was my first full set at the "main" Jam Cellars stage at the festival (had saw a few dabbles of it the first day early in the morning while I met up with friends), and I was a little nervous because most of the Bottlerock crowd (if you look a past years pictures) tend to "camp" at the main stage ALL day (which is why a lot of the other stages, mainly the Truly and Plaza stages, are pretty sparse in terms of crowds/etc), and I really wasn't in the mood in trying to fight for a spot, nor standing out in an open field with no place to lean up against (aka, a rail), and I figured all the good "rail spots" had been taken hours before hand, but nonetheless, PTM and GNR were next on our list, so we had to go brave the desert plains, fight the crowd and look for a spot (something I really hadn't done at any festival since Coachella 2019!). And...it wasn't as bad as I was hoping. I lead the way (as I always do, I can't stand slow walkers or following them) and I weaved in and out up until we were even with the soundboard but to the left of it, but my friend, knowing our favorite spot is in front of it, motioned for me to keep going and try getting into the "soundboard pocket", and so that's what I did, and we managed to get about 10 feet in front of the soundboard rail (the rail itself had been taken alongside a sea of blankets - I'll save that rant for another band/show write up, but it's coming soon, I promise). Just like the ol' days....I still had it. As for Portugal the Man, I had seen them back at Coachella 2018, when another friend had convinced me to do so (I was never a huge fan), and I was semi-impressed/entertained. For this night, I was a little more hyped, given I had seen a set before and knew what to sort of expect, and that's exactly what happened. This was essentially their Coachella 2018 set, but a tad longer and maybe 1 or 2 different covers thrown in, plus they did a special intro (that I don't remember them doing back at Coachella) where they invited a group of local Native Americans on stage to partake in a special chant/song, welcoming us to their land. Then the Beavis and Butthead video kicked in (I remember that from Coachella too), and then of course the cover of Metallica's "For Whom the Bell Tolls" (remember that too) and onward into an hour long set that included a David Bowie cover, a Pink Floyd cover, and my favorite (obviously), a cover of Nirvana's "In Bloom" (which I definitely DO NOT remember from Coachella - must be something they did given the Foo's were playing the next night?). All the covers were great. But I do enjoy some of their songs too. "So American" is great, as is "Got It All". Still not a fanof "Feel It Still", but they all can't be winners right? Great set though, I would catch these guys again, as they really do put a lot of effort into their performances and they all seem to genuinely be having a lot of fun up on stage. The wind was a little annoying during this set, as was the crowd, so it's not the cleanest sounding recording, given we were surrounded by folks waiting for GnR, but I wasn't expecting it to be either.  Also, at some point during the set, Guy Fieri walks out on stage and pours each member a glass of wine, yells something into the mic and walks off. He's sort of become the unofficial mascot of the festival I think. I'm pretty sure he's there every year whether he's invited/booked or not. In fact, one of my friends who went with me to Bottlerock this year (his first Bottlerock), the first thing he saw as he walked into the grounds on Saturday, was Guy Fieri up on the culinary stage (yes, this festival literally devotes a whole stage to cooking - I'm not a foodie, so I don't care, but whatever floats your boat) spraying a fire extinguisher into the crowd. Party on.
| Files (download all files) |
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| ptm-2021-09-04-bottlerock-napa-aud-24bit-info.txt (download) |
| ptm-2021-09-04-bottlerock-napa-aud-24bit-t01.md5 (download) |