Portishead: Third's a Crowd?

We waited ten years for this — that's exactly how long the Bristol natives Beth Gibbons, Geoff Barrow (who grew up in the town of Portishead not far from Bristol — hence the band's name) and Adrian Utley, better known to the world under the name Portishead, kept their creative silence: no proper concerts, no releases. And this after the band had thundered across the whole world with its first two albums, Dummy and Portishead, defining the trip-hop genre alongside their peers Massive Attack and Tricky. For some, to this very day the words "Portishead" and "trip-hop" are something like synonyms.

Many of us had already come to terms with the thought that the world would see no more releases from Portishead, all the more so since Beth Gibbons, like the other members of the group, had tried her hand at a solo career, and had even released one album — Out of Season — but, alas, it didn't win the praise of listeners.

In the music world there are many examples of spark-like bands that flare up brightly and swiftly in the firmament of show business and then instantly burn out, leaving a trace only in the memory of listeners — but a pleasant trace, and for many years to come. In this way the musician doesn't have time to bore their audience, and each of their songs comes to be valued like a gold bar. In the world of visual art one can observe a similar phenomenon — artists receive their great recognition only after death, when it becomes obvious to connoisseurs that the author's brush is fated never to touch canvas again. And here a question naturally arises — was it worth it for Beth Gibbons and her colleagues to return to the stage? And isn't the "third" one too many?

So, in October 2007 Portishead announced the release, scheduled for April 2008, of a new album with the very "original" title Third. In early 2008 the group also announced the organisation of a European tour in support of the release. And despite the fact that tickets for all 17 concerts in the major cities of the Old World were sold out a month and a half to two months in advance, we nevertheless managed to attend one of the band's performances — namely, the concert on 6 April in Cologne, Germany.

A little about the venue. The concert was held at the Palladium, a space for two to three thousand people, where popular rock acts usually perform. The entry arrangements for the concert were quite comfortable for visitors — practically no queues. Inside you could sample the popular local Kölsch beer on draught, as well as grab a bite of superb German hot dogs (here, unlike in Russia, it's not crappy food). Despite the fact that the venue was full of visitors, it was easy to move around the hall and get to the bar.

It's unclear who came up with the reckless idea of including the Liverpool band Kling Klang in part of the Portishead tour as a support/warm-up act. It was not just the disappointment of the evening: during the hour of this group's performance it was hard to remain in the concert hall — the music, primitive from every point of view, grated on the ear. The absence of original arrangements, the use of musical instruments at the level of amateur students, the bored look of the musicians themselves, the poor voice of the vocalist — and how did they even end up here?

The Portishead concert itself lasted a little over an hour, and the band played all their old hits plus all the songs from the new, third album. As was to be expected, technically everything was of the highest order — Gibbons still sings magnificently, and her colleagues haven't forgotten how to read music. The performance was accompanied by a video sequence, which consisted of a live feed of what was happening on stage with effects overlaid, plus infrequent inserts of pre-prepared footage.

We all know the band's old songs perfectly well, so there's not much need to write about them. Let us note only that the old hits were performed close to their album versions, with the exception of the super-hit Wandering Star, which the band performed in a beautiful minimalist variation — only the bass and Beth Gibbons's wonderful voice escaped the scalpel. The audience, of course, rejoiced and applauded after each song performed. Before my eyes, two young girls were carried out of the hall in people's arms because they had fainted from an overload of emotion — that's how desperate the band's fans are. At the end there was an encore, but too straightforward a one — the band performed three songs in a row, without forcing its admirers to beg for the party to continue after each one.

So what about the new songs, the songs from the new album? Many have already heard them thanks to the swift work of Internet pirates. One can easily assume that the band's admirers will be disappointed (or have already been disappointed) by the new album, because the Portishead we're used to isn't on it. At the same time, the musicians will gain new fans from among listeners of rock music. The band has taken a seven-league stride towards psychedelic rock — in Third there are almost no electronic samples, no more scratches; the songs are now more emotional and harsh, with notes of depression and hopelessness. Stylistically the new sound is reminiscent of our own homegrown band "Rada & Ternovnik". Let us note that whereas on the trip-hop scene the band had essentially no one to compete with, in the world of rock they'll have to sweat seriously — there are already plenty of good and very popular acts here.

Portishead's first albums "banged", had a measured but energetic vibe, whereas the songs from Third are more like abrupt cries of a vexation that has lodged itself deep in the soul. We feel pain and disappointment in the singer's heart, rather than the calm melancholy of before. Just one new composition deserves special mention — Machine Gun, which can already be bought both in mp3 and on vinyl. An interesting minimalist arrangement — crisp rolls of electronic drums in tandem with the voice we love. But listen and watch for yourself (a live performance just 10 days ago on TV):