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On June 8th, I had the opportunity of not only seeing the great Portugal. The Man, but I was also able to sit down and ask Zach Carothers (bass/backing vocals) and Ryan Neighbors (keyboard/backing vocals).

I had the chance to talk to them at Rams Head Live about their new album, being released on June 19th, 2011. The album is titled In the Mountain, In the Cloud and according to Zach and Ryan, it’s going to be their best album to date.

Featuring 11 tracks, we can expect to hear something similar to what they put out in American Ghetto, with a bit of influence from their new Atlantic producers.. and David Bowie apparently.

You can listen to the interview here: Movin’ on Up! Five Minutes with Portugal the Man

The show itself was an absolute blast!  I had never heard of the band playing before Portugal, , but Zach and Ryan assured me before our interview that they were well worth the listen.  Their a three piece jam band from Unknown Mortal Orchestra and were most definitely a good fit to open up for Portugal.

Throughout both bands’ sets, we all had the opportunity to witness some of John Gourley’s artwork.  The backdrop for both bands was a giant painting of the album art for In the Mountain, In the Cloud and I have to say, it looked absolutely stunning amongst the fog and lights.

Once Portugal actually started playing, the crowd went insane.  They came out for a second to tune/set up their instruments, everyone, including myself, started screaming like school girls, and they walked back off.  Shortly though, they came back out and started jamming their hearts out.  I had downloaded one of their previous live sets off of their website when they were allowing downloads so I had already come to expect a great set with a couple new songs and tons of classics.  However, they ended up playing a few newer songs that I hadn’t even heard before.  Let me tell you, I’ve been a bit skeptical about what In the Mountain, In the Cloud is going to sound like and after this show, I’m convinced it’s going to be great.  Guess we just won’t know for sure until June 19th!  Look for our review on the day of release here!