This show was about the best a show could be, considering that my most favourite element to earlier Massive Attack albums, vocalist "Tricky" has long since gone his own way. But perhaps even mentioning that would be spiteful because 3D and Danny G have been a creative team of digitally shamanistic musical geniuses, holding it down as a dynamic duo of the UK's most quintessential and exclusively held "Trip-Hop" genre. Like Godfathers of the UK sound, their influence can be felt in a variety of today's music from the likes of DJ Shadow to REM. The Deftones to Kanye West.
Though a spacious atmosphere, Sound Academy really is a narrow music venue has a fair share of obstructed viewing thanks to the buildings design lending itself to more of a night club than a concert hall. The most often obstacle is the guardrails for the various drinking areas and side bars. This night, the guardrails were actually down though, which was nice. There was greater breathing room to get to the bar for a drink with ease.
The band played at the top of their game. In anticipation I recall wondering, 'will they pull it off considering the various guest singers that accompany their albums?" To my surprise, they were joined on stage by some amazing guest vocalists. I wish I could put a name to them, but one was like an African Queen while the other was like Bob Marley's brother-in-law. Safe From Harm and Angel were done justice well by them along with many other songs that so beautifully remove a central ego to the music and travel freely through all that is Massive Attack.
The setlist felt at least an hour and a half - I lost my sense of time to be honest, which I hope serves as a testament to how entrancing the show was all together.
Beyond the sonic brilliance of the music was the great visual display - I don't know it you would call it a 30x150 foot wide LCD screen or that it was panels with some special projector, but there was something in this structure set up behind them on stage that kept this very thought provoking stream of brilliant binary numbers scrolling across the screen, suiting the computer world of the synthesizers and as if they were being run through a Homeland Security decoding program, flashing lights in time with the music would start revealing words and phrases, jarring in it's haunting rhythm with socio/political statements, or up to the minute economic figures in national and international debts. This darkened Orwellian landscape was in tune with the soundscape we all know and love from Massive Attack. Perhaps easily overlooked in context by some who just enjoying it as an an artistically benign element (afterall, it's really just serving the same need as any light show), but I really believe it was an added touch that deserves the same kind of appreciation and recognition as something of an instillation art unto itself.
The band's ensemble was also ignited by the glow of the spotlights and their state of the art electronic and analog instruments. With a song like Karamacoma or Angel, there was a seductive escape into incredible geometrical basking lights dazzling the audience that brought it up into a climactic crescendo of rock and roll like energy, brought down a step into the funky rhythms of UK beats as the show came to it's final close.
