Given the eerie beats and unnerving music Portishead conjure up, they really were an unlikely musical phenomenon back when they released debut album Dummy in 1994.
But along with other trip hop acts such as Massive Attack - and to a lesser and more twisted extent Tricky - they hit the big time.
And while the Bristol band don't quite have the pulling power these days - playing a smaller configuration of Vector Arena on their first visit to New Zealand since 1998 - songs like deliciously creepy pop hit Sour Times and the trippy serenity of Wandering Star still sound exotic and fresh.
And it's perhaps not surprising their popularity has waned slightly considering the band's lean musical output of just three albums in 20 years, which included a long hiatus from 1999 until returning with 2008's Third.
But singer Beth Gibbons and core band members Geoff Barrow and Adrian Utley remain poised and powerful musicians, despite a few scratchy moments last night that Gibbons' smiled and apologised for at the end of their set.
