Skip to main content
In case you didn't get the memo, Portugal the Man are quite fond of Portland.
Ever since blowing up to arena-scale two years ago, the band has used its heightened profile to rep their hometown on the biggest stages—never mind that the group technically started in Alaska.
During their set on the main stage of Coachella in 2018, they jammed the Blazers' trumpet theme while projecting animations of the Portland landscape on the Jumbotron behind them. When they won a Grammy, they again shouted out the Trail Blazers, and when they sold out Edgefield last summer, they brought out Damian Lillard to throw shirts into the crowd.
Last night at Moda Center, though, the band took its Rose City homerism to new levels.
Opening for Mumford and Sons, in front of what might have been the biggest local crowd they've played for yet, the band pulled out every trick in its arsenal to remind the audience that, yes, these rock stars are actually your neighbors!
There were Blazer jerseys. There were Blazer dancers. There were references to Old Portland icons Jim Spagg and Ramblin' Rod, two figures that predate the band's arrival in town in the early 2000s. At the end of the night, for a set-closing performance of their still-inescapable hit, "Feel It Still," Blaze the Trail Cat, Timber Joey and Dillon the Portland Pickle joined the band onstage as the LED screen asked, "After-party at Yamhill Pub?" (It's fun to imagine a bunch of suburban Mumford and Sons fans Google Mapping the Yamhill after the show and then being profoundly disappointed with what they find.)
Check out video of the performance below, courtesy of KOIN. It's what folks in the pro-wrestling biz call "cheap heat," but hey, if it works, it works.