Live Review: Toro Y Moi, Portugal. The Man

Perhaps the writing is on the wall for the once reliable Big Day Out model, given this year's event again failed to sell out compared to past years, which led to the cancelling of a second Sydney show and sees Perth without a show next year. That said, however, the remaining sideshows have been well attended and Portugal. The Man had a sweet taste of this, opening their set to a sizeable audience and delivering another enthusiastic performance. The Alaskan indie-psych-pop four-piece were quick with the drinking between songs, thanks to their dedicated roadie who ensured the band were supplied with a constant shot of some sort of unknown (brown?) liquid jungle juice. Unfortunately the sound wasn't quite right and took a lot of the sheen off what was an otherwise well received performance; however there didn't seem to be any audible complaints about sound from the floor, with the set including (similar to their Big Day Out set) songs from the well-received Evil Friends.

The annual event that is the Toro Y Moi (aka Chaz Bundick) show, which generally follows their annual showing at an Aussie festival, was another thoroughly enjoyable affair, plump with bass-heavy beats, rock licks and Stevie Wonder synth. Opening with the '90s house-inspired Harm In Change off the less lauded but well-received Anything In Return album, it was cool to hear a notable difference between the live and album version, the latter being more enjoyable. Backed by an additional keys player this time round and maintaining his excellent relationship with bass player Patrick Jeffords (probably THE funkiest white bass player the world has ever known) the semi-reserved crowd kicked into fifth gear following the first few milliseconds of Still Sound, and other party hits from 2011's Underneath The Pine caused a considerable number of people to bust out their smart phones to no doubt record the excellent vibe that saw out the night.

One of the other highlights was pointing out the fact to my flat mate that you could see Chaz's nipple though his shirt and her later comment that she spent the rest of the evening focused solely on it.