Light check from first day of production rehearsals
Blinding great lights eh?
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November 16, 2006
Light check from first day of production rehearsals
Blinding great lights eh?
-
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Light check from first day of production rehearsals
Blinding great lights eh?
-
-
Light check from first day of production rehearsals
Blinding great lights eh?
-
-
Holywood Bowl Review
Massive Attack's involving presence
A show at the Bowl is dynamic, never mind that one principal is absent
and supporting players and cohorts carry much of the load.
By Steve Hochman
Special to The Times
September 26, 2006
An odd thing happened with the third song of Massive Attack's concert at
the Hollywood Bowl on Sunday. None of the people performing at that
point were actually members of Massive Attack.
With Elizabeth Fraser, formerly of the Cocteau Twins, coming on stage to
sing "Black Melt" (and quite beautifully at that), the only actual
Massive Attacker on the current tour, Robert Del Naja, sat on the front
of the drum riser and, well, sat.
Fraser was then backed by just five supporting musicians, as was Horace
Andy on the next song, "Man Next Door." In fact, for about half the
show, Del Naja - whose partner, Daddy G, is back in England on paternity
leave - had no active role, as Fraser, Andy and/or Deborah Miller
handled the vocals. (Fraser and Jamaican-born Andy are veteran Massive
cohorts, while Miller is a new find.)
On paper it might sound perilously like "The Massive Attack Revue."
On stage it was a remarkably dynamic and involving 100 minutes that
truly lived up to the creative standards that have been associated with
the name Massive Attack.
Since emerging in the mid-'90s, M.A. pretty much has rewritten the rules
as to what exactly a band is, the studio denizens enlisting various
singers to craft emotionally rich, aurally seductive tracks. Along with
fellow Bristol lights Portishead and Tricky, collectively lumped as
leaders of the misnamed "trip-hop" movement, they reinvented pop forms
without adhering blindly to the techno conventions that dominated their
environs. The best Massive recordings remain breathtakingly inventive.
So now, with a full-band tour, Massive is taking on concert conventions,
and once again rewriting the rules. At times Sunday's performance called
to mind such super-achievers as Radiohead and Peter Gabriel and a few
other top names of art-pop - the opening "False Flags" fell just a David
Gilmour guitar solo shy of sounding like a great lost Pink Floyd epic,
yet never seemed derivative.
It was a perfect transition from the second-billed set by Brooklyn's TV
on the Radio, the acclaimed, accomplished quintet that with two albums
now has refined a sound that filters its own art-rock influences
(notably David Bowie circa "Heroes" and the earthier side of Sonic
Youth) through an intriguing blues-based reduction. The problem with the
group is a sense of coldness that radiates from the music, though less
so Sunday at the Bowl than on recordings, in large part due to singer
Tunde Adebimpe's personable ways.
There's nothing wrong with an anti-pop stance, but would it kill these
guys to write a memorable chorus? It's not like they're playing free
jazz or Persian taqsims or anything so far off the mainstream map. That
lack (as well as being cut off at the start of what was to be the final
song of the set due to the Bowl's tight timetable, just as a real sense
of momentum was being built) undermined the still-interesting
performance, spiked by well-woven lyrics blurring the lines between
personal and political passions.
No such problem for Massive Attack. While the lyrics are generally
impressionistic, Times Square-like message light scrolls were used
pointedly to add sociopolitical layers, such as the statistics of Iraq
war casualties and costs that ran by as Miller and Del Naja sang the
simmering-yet-hopeful climax "Safe From Harm."
But the impact came from the whole package. When out front, Del Naja
danced and shadowboxed between lines sung with his sharp-edged voice, a
spotlight-worthy frontman - that is, if there had been a spotlight. The
stage was lighted almost entirely by a bright bank of color-shifting
lights behind the performers, leaving them in semianonymous silhouette.
The band brought full life to the music without ever merely copying the
recorded versions. The intro-to-launch build-up of "Angel" seemed ready
to break free of gravity itself. Beats were somehow at once fluid and
rock solid, tones ranged seamlessly from delicate and brittle to
powerfully, uh, massive.
-
A show at the Bowl is dynamic, never mind that one principal is absent
and supporting players and cohorts carry much of the load.
By Steve Hochman
Special to The Times
September 26, 2006
An odd thing happened with the third song of Massive Attack's concert at
the Hollywood Bowl on Sunday. None of the people performing at that
point were actually members of Massive Attack.
With Elizabeth Fraser, formerly of the Cocteau Twins, coming on stage to
sing "Black Melt" (and quite beautifully at that), the only actual
Massive Attacker on the current tour, Robert Del Naja, sat on the front
of the drum riser and, well, sat.
Fraser was then backed by just five supporting musicians, as was Horace
Andy on the next song, "Man Next Door." In fact, for about half the
show, Del Naja - whose partner, Daddy G, is back in England on paternity
leave - had no active role, as Fraser, Andy and/or Deborah Miller
handled the vocals. (Fraser and Jamaican-born Andy are veteran Massive
cohorts, while Miller is a new find.)
On paper it might sound perilously like "The Massive Attack Revue."
On stage it was a remarkably dynamic and involving 100 minutes that
truly lived up to the creative standards that have been associated with
the name Massive Attack.
Since emerging in the mid-'90s, M.A. pretty much has rewritten the rules
as to what exactly a band is, the studio denizens enlisting various
singers to craft emotionally rich, aurally seductive tracks. Along with
fellow Bristol lights Portishead and Tricky, collectively lumped as
leaders of the misnamed "trip-hop" movement, they reinvented pop forms
without adhering blindly to the techno conventions that dominated their
environs. The best Massive recordings remain breathtakingly inventive.
So now, with a full-band tour, Massive is taking on concert conventions,
and once again rewriting the rules. At times Sunday's performance called
to mind such super-achievers as Radiohead and Peter Gabriel and a few
other top names of art-pop - the opening "False Flags" fell just a David
Gilmour guitar solo shy of sounding like a great lost Pink Floyd epic,
yet never seemed derivative.
It was a perfect transition from the second-billed set by Brooklyn's TV
on the Radio, the acclaimed, accomplished quintet that with two albums
now has refined a sound that filters its own art-rock influences
(notably David Bowie circa "Heroes" and the earthier side of Sonic
Youth) through an intriguing blues-based reduction. The problem with the
group is a sense of coldness that radiates from the music, though less
so Sunday at the Bowl than on recordings, in large part due to singer
Tunde Adebimpe's personable ways.
There's nothing wrong with an anti-pop stance, but would it kill these
guys to write a memorable chorus? It's not like they're playing free
jazz or Persian taqsims or anything so far off the mainstream map. That
lack (as well as being cut off at the start of what was to be the final
song of the set due to the Bowl's tight timetable, just as a real sense
of momentum was being built) undermined the still-interesting
performance, spiked by well-woven lyrics blurring the lines between
personal and political passions.
No such problem for Massive Attack. While the lyrics are generally
impressionistic, Times Square-like message light scrolls were used
pointedly to add sociopolitical layers, such as the statistics of Iraq
war casualties and costs that ran by as Miller and Del Naja sang the
simmering-yet-hopeful climax "Safe From Harm."
But the impact came from the whole package. When out front, Del Naja
danced and shadowboxed between lines sung with his sharp-edged voice, a
spotlight-worthy frontman - that is, if there had been a spotlight. The
stage was lighted almost entirely by a bright bank of color-shifting
lights behind the performers, leaving them in semianonymous silhouette.
The band brought full life to the music without ever merely copying the
recorded versions. The intro-to-launch build-up of "Angel" seemed ready
to break free of gravity itself. Beats were somehow at once fluid and
rock solid, tones ranged seamlessly from delicate and brittle to
powerfully, uh, massive.
-
Passes
Ideas for passes that tom did for the westonbirt gig. What do you think?
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Roseland Ballroom - nyc
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November 09, 2006
massive attack collected flower
Great artwork ! Check it out!
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Massive in the USA Part 2
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Sanktgallen06.jpg
Really good gig, this is just a sample entry to check that it's all
working ok. I wonder how you tag these posts via e-mail with a keyword
in the mail?
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working ok. I wonder how you tag these posts via e-mail with a keyword
in the mail?
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Massive in the USA
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the twilight singers version of live with me
From pukklepop festival.
Another cool fansite link
Cool fansite link
DIS review
Here's a link to quite a complementary DIS review of the westonbirt show.
Our show in Toronto
Canada was amazing. Such a vast country. Our show was one of the best we've ever played
Here's a couple of pics that show off the sheer size of the live shows.
All Photos by Dustin Rabin
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- Passes
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- massive attack collected flower
- Massive in the USA Part 2
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