Pitchfork

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