[Gig Review]PORTUGAL. THE MAN W/ DIZZY DAYS @ The Corner Hotel, Melbourne (AUS), 17.10.2026.
Words:
Samuel O’Flynn
Photography/Footage:
Samuel O’Flynn
Presented by:
LiveNation
Venue:
The Corner Hotel, Richmond Victoria
Ah, 2013… I can hear you calling.
A much simpler time, one where music was played on MP3 players, iPods and/or or if you had neither, the radio (specifically Triple J in the case and point of my workplace). Portugal. The Man are one such band I had discovered in this fashion, and I have always been intrigued by indie-rock projects.
Feeling a little out of place in my Swallow the Sun shirt amongst the groovy-hipster crowd, I am most definitely ready for a little bit of 2013 Triple J based nostalgia. Due to the Tame Impala tour, the Melbourne Portugal. The Man show was downsized to The Corner. Come 8:25pm, a modest crowd develops for openers Dizzy Days.
A general observation made at The Corner this evening is that there is no venue-length line waiting for the merch desk, and overall a a much more relaxed vibe to The Corner Hotel this evening than what I’m used to.
8:30 rolls around and Australian Disco-pop band Dizzy Days take to the stage with one clear mission statement and that is to get everybody in the room grooving and dancing. Bridgette Dabinett makes sure of this with a mega-infectious bass groove that has the entire room boogeying.
Aisling O’Byrne has a massive amount of swaggering energy and an intense vocal delivery, taking the room back to the height of disco in late 70’s whilst also bringing the banter and sassiness in the room to the next level. Introducing the next track ‘Holding On’. There's a programmed click track before Mikaela Swan comes in with a pulsing beat. Continuing with the funky feel of their set, the next track is off the 2025 EP Tunnel Vision and is called ‘Focus on Me’. Ej Carey has kept a constant funky guitar section throughout the entire set, and Aisling O’Byrne charismatically has the crowd entranced.
The last couple of tracks this evening, the disco vibes are next-level, and a sing-along is encouraged. The last song in the high energy opening set is called ‘It’s Me It’s Not You’, and it's about being the problem. It’s a high energy dance-pop number, and the room is absolutely heaving with energy!
Though not specifically my cup of tea, Dizzy Days was a nice change of pace from metal, specifically.
The crowd has filled out a little more and at 10 minutes out from the start of Portugal it is obvious that I have worn the wrong gear to this evenings show but oh well.
Portugal. The Man start their set off with a traditional Welcome to Country with a Preston-based Bunurong elder named Paul Kelly. A smoke ceremony is performed, before Paul calls forth Portugal. The Man with a Didgeridoo opening.
John Gourley and current touring line-up take to the stage and a minimalist introduction is said “we are Portugal. The Man and this is our new album SHISH” before opening the set with ‘Denali’ named after a mountain in Alaska. The good thing about Portugal. The Man is the fact a lot of their stuff recorded is completely different to its live setting. Denali is deeply Weezer coded.
One of my favourite moments from the new album played live is the almost-thrash track ‘Pittman Raiders’. The explosive energy bought from touring backing-vocalist David Marion is wild, taking advantage of the limited space on The Corner’s stage. With sprinting and jumping galore, David is an absolute joy to watch.
Now, the smoke and haze machines made taking photos quite difficult, so unfortunately there’s no photos from this evening’s festivities. Quite a few nice little slices of footage in this review with more to come, though! ‘SHISH’ has an excellent use of 90s punk DIY ethics. The track ‘Shish’ itself has John Gourley use a pitch shifter and samples for the bulk of the track. ‘Tanana’ is up next and It’s a very Spacehog-reminiscent song, ‘SHISH’ goes everywhere possible live within the scope of the post-grunge genre.
A brief pause is had and John says “that’s most of the new album, now its time for some of our older songs”, effectively opening an entire second set with a trio of songs that play into psychedelic rock. From the album In the Mountain Cloud, tracks ‘That’s So American’ and ‘Got it All(This Can’t be Living)’ get a nice crowd-sway and sing-along moment going. ‘Senseless’, on the other hand, is played faster and gets a little more riff-driven.
John takes a brief pause to than say “I was inspired to start the pass the mic foundation on the custom of welcome to country, as I come from a small village in the middle of Alaska. We’re going to get Paul to come back on stage for this next one”.
Of course, it’s the one song that’s all-over Australian media ‘Feel it Still’ from 2017’s Woodstock. now the fun part of all this is that there’s instrumental beaks and solos that are not in the recorded versions of the songs touring guitarist Liv Slingerland adds so much flair to the music its hard to not be in awe of her playing whilst rocking out.
The various influences on Portugal. The Man are all on show this evening. The next track is a standalone single called ‘Glide’; this one is a power-pop track if I’ve ever heard one! The audience gets involved in singing the chorus “We glide, we glide, we gliii-de!”
‘What, Me Worry’ is sped up and down-tuned at the same time. David gets back into running-man mode, and even spends a bit of time in the crowd with this punked-up version. There’s also a lot of 5-part vocal harmonies between members of the band - especially on the material from 2013’s Evil Friends.
‘Portugal. The Man and the infinite setlist’ is what this show should have been affectionately called… After a short break to tune-up instruments, they are straight back into a medley of songs, those being ‘Live in the Moment’/’Once Was One’ and ‘Someday Believers’. Also the lights through the medley were insane - an epileptics’ nightmare.
Now, if the opening part of the set was the new album, the closing portion of the set was 21-year-old Sammy’s crying true tears of absolute nostalgia. That’s right - the last part of the show is an ode to Evil Friends! I absolutely flogged this album on release, and recently rediscovered it after exploring the best of Triple J in the early 2010’s.
Starting this section off with ‘Creep in a T-Shirt’ is a hype move: it plays into the neo-psychedelia sound of that time. You can see where the upcoming Australian bands of that era got their inspiration throughout their respective establishment phases. Another cool thing done in ‘Creep in a T-Shirt’ is that there is even an Evil Friends interlude.
‘Evil Friends’ and ‘Hip-hop Kids’ bring the big sing-along energy to the penultimate tracks closing out this epic-length set. The way the band played both songs had a little bit of thrasher energy again, which was so satisfying to see and hear. The recorded versions are so very different to the live show, with a renewed energy being brought to the live front.
I’m also forgetting ‘Modern Jesus’ with its super poppy, programmed keyboards this time. Although I was stuck behind our dear friend (the noble Corner Hotel pole) for most of the set, this suited me fine due to a little bit of personal anxiety. Although, granted that also means I couldn’t see John’s setup for the evening.
Another thing that I noticed myself doing a fair bit throughout the set was throwing the horns in appreciation for the amazing tunes being served up to me on a platter. Realising its not a metal gig, though, admittedly did have me throwing the horns in slightly more subdued fashion than usual…
Our evening with Portugal. The Man ends with one final track from SHISH, this one being another relatively aggressive belter called ‘Father Gun’ and there were a couple more metal folk evidently about, as the crowd suddenly erupted in a surge of head banging.
I did take off slightly earlier than the conclusion of the last song, as home is quite a drive now and I wanted to avoid the Tame Impala traffic. It astounds me how little self-preservation the average concert-goer has just walking out in front of oncoming traffic like ‘no worries bro!’. Granted, that’s absolutely tangential to this review at best.
Mind you, I think any band playing the same night as a sold-out Tame Impala tour is going to suffer for ticket sales. Portugal. The Man themselves did have to change their event to The Corner Hotel 2 weeks out from the tour kick-off.
In summation: Yes 21-year-old me had a blast seeing Portugal. The Man, 13 years on from discovering them. This tour was incredibly special and it has been an absolute privilege to write up my experience of this phenomenal band.
This band is definitely not your typical indie-rock experience!
LINKS:
Portugal. The Man:
Dizzy Days:
LiveNation Australia:
INNER-STRENGTH CHECK - LINKS:
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