Watch PNYC: Portishead - Roseland New York For Free

The film makes a home in your brain and the only cure is to see it again.

There's no way I can possibly love it entirely but I just think its ridiculously bad, but enjoyable at the same time.

There are moments that feel comical, some horrific, and some downright inspiring but the tonal shifts hardly matter as the end results come to a film that's perfect for this time.

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

This review is a BIG departure from the normal horror/gore/sleaze that I review - but I must say that I'm a HUGE P-HEAD fan and am mad at myself for not coppin' this DVD earlier. As far as "live" music is concerned - I've seen literally thousands of bands live, from SLAYER to STEELY DAN - and if there is any one single band that I never got to see live and could make it happen - it'd be these guys (and girl...)...Backed by a full orchestra - PORTISHEAD does every song that you want to hear done live - and does it spot-on...period...If you're a PORTISHEAD fan - you MUST see this. Make sure to also peep the "special-features" as it showcases all of their commercially-made videos and their short film - TO KILL A DEAD MAN. If you are even a marginal P-HEAD fan - pick this joint up immediately. If I had to have any gripe about this DVD - it would be that the songs are so well done that they sound straight off of their albums. You can take that as a good or bad thing. I was hoping for a little more "improvisation" - but it didn't much happen. I also think that PORTISHEAD is deserving of a little more of a "stage-show" which this concert is not - it's a pretty straight-forward showing of them doin' what they do best - but backed with a full orchestra. In other words - even with my minor gripes - this has already become one of my "most-watched" DVD's in my collection...15/10

A unique film of a live concert. It's shot in a couple of ways; conventional, sepia filtered footage is intercut with Super 8. Rather like the music - sample-heavy, studio-based, soundscape-as-song - trying on a live outfit, the film sets itself up as both a concert document and a film-in-itself.The result is a bewildering triumph in all respects. The conceptual gamble of the orchestra and band at audience level (with no division save the dolly tracks) pays off - it feels live and genuinely intimate. Add a possessed, shamanic performance from Beth Gibbons, cocooned in the midst of the band, and we get the music like an IV shot. Watching the muted, monochromatic-filtered film was, for me, rather like looking at a painting by Mark Rothko: stripped of the clutter of context or content the experience becomes more direct.Luckily, the band don't push it. They're not above talking to the audience and the film cuts between the concert and scenes out on the street and footage both prior to and after the show. The end result is a concert that is no more than what it is, without claim or pretence. It's absorbing, oddly moving and almost insurmountably cool.

I bought Portishead's album "Dummy" when it came out. It has since then been one of my favorite records in my collection,But when I saw this recording from Roseland it gave the name Portishead a whole new dimension! It is one of the few bands that actually can play their songs live without improvising half the hard parts. I could not spot one single weak point in vocals or instruments! If you like Portishead but have never seen them live...what are you waiting for?!A new experience is waiting...the Portishead experience!

This recorded concert brings forth angles of Portishead that cannot be found in just listening to their music. They provide the viewer/listener with an ambush of the senses, and watching how their incredible music is made makes it even more amazing. The ability to tie into one the numerous different sources of their sound proves that Portishead is not just one of the most ground-breaking musical acts of the 1990's, but also one of the most talented. Beth Gibbons shows off her beautiful voice and the rest of the musicians follow suit. There is so much one can say about how simply awesome this concert is, but the best thing to do is buy it and watch it over and over!