Portugal. the Man at Canopy Club: Review

Of late, our humble little college town has been getting some really big names blessing the stages of Canopy Club and other venues. When a big-font festival band like Portugal. the Man was announced at Canopy, I knew I had to witness their sold out show in all its' glory live.Portugal. the Man has been making music since the mid 2000's, but they really started making waves with their 2011 album In the Mountain in the Cloud and their hit 2013 album Evil Friends. Since then, they’ve been working on an as of yet unreleased album and have been touring nonstop. They've become mainstays at most big festivals nationwide.The first thing that really captured my attention when I walked into Canopy Club was the extravagant stage setup for the band. The entire stage was covered in hanging orbs of different sizes, vividly glimmering in different colors and light patterns according to the songs. The stage was enveloped in warm red and blue hues, with the strobe-like lights blinking to the beat.Overall, the band was very high in energy and definitely made everyone dance, even though most of their music is mid-tempo. The songs they played were from their past few records, which were all pop-friendly, kind of psychedelic, progressive rock songs. I definitely enjoyed how they stretched out the outro's to several of their songs to show off their guitar-shredding prowess and truly delve into their psych/prog rock roots, often seamlessly transitioning from one song to another.One of my favorite parts of the show was definitely when Portugal started playing a cover of “The Wall” by Pink Floyd and the orbs were glowing bright pink and then the chorus turned into “Purple, Yellow, Red and Blue”(with the colors changing accordingly), one of the band’s most popular songs.Portugal. the Man brought an amazing show to Canopy, which, as always, was an extremely hospitable venue with some amazing bartenders. Hopefully, Portugal returns to Canopy, but if you get the chance to see them another time, then their incredible live talent and hilariously good cover of “The Nightman Cometh” from It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia definitely will not disappoint.