My camera wasn't allowed in, i guess because its a "private rehearsal" or something, so instead of the horrible cellphone-cam pics i took, here's a nice pic provided by the band. And how did this guy get his nice camera in there? And why does he have "all rights reserved"?! UGH!

With the Mayan Theater about half-full and slowly being filled with puffs of pot smoke, Portishead took the stage last night for their super-secret-show, and welcomed the crowd by announcing that it was a rehearsal for Coachella, and that this whole event is just so they can test their instruments.

The crowd was immediately awestruck, as the band started off with two new songs from their album Third, even the security guards.

It became crystal the band still had it, and if anything were better than ever.

They seemed to be taking a departure from their more trademark trip-hop sound complete with turntables and scratching, to a more shoegazer style.

Mysterons was their third song, and they played it exactly like the CD up to a point, and gave it a unique ending. By now the crowd was swaying like crazy with a sporadic, “WOOO!” being screamed here and there. Even the occasional, “I LOVE YOU GUYS!”

After a couple of songs that were either new or unfamiliar to me, they played Glorybox for their 5th song, and the hairs on the back of my neck stood straight out.

The band seems kind of shy, like they appreciate the crowd 100% but are at the same time a little intimidated by the attention. It’s cool though; you get the feeling that they’re just more into making good music than being in the spotlight.

For song 6 they played Wandering Stars, where they sat down and played the song more as an acoustic “unplugged” version.

I went upstairs at this point to check out the vibe, and everyone was just in a trance, completely engulfed in the music. I nodded in approval and moseyed on back downstairs.

They then played their new single, Over, Sour Times, Roads, several others that I just can’t remember right now.

They came out for a two song encore, and while the very last song was playing lead-signer Beth Gibbons hopped off the stage and stood on the barrier in front of the crowd so that she could shake hands, and greet the audience.

She made sure to span the whole front of the audience as to greet and high-five as many fans as possible.

Then we all cheered like maniacs and filed out of the Mayan, and you could see the expression on everyone’s faces was that of, “Holy Fuck! I am blown away!”