Massive Attack
Wolverhampton Civic Hall
One can never fail to be innately impressed by Massive Attack. They command adulation as the shining and serene statesmen of a music, the invention of which they are given all credit for. The focus of their tour is, of course, the new work ‘Mezzanine’; an album which it seems has been too long in the coming. Having been silent for around three years since ‘Protection’, the band have apparently come through a number of musical and personal differences. Yet they have stuck together to produce an album which they have referred to as an “evolution” of their music.
Despite this - long-awaited album release, threatened split - Massive Attack have never been seen to be “in your face” or “self-promoting”, they shy away from publicity. This attitude is wholly apparent in their live show. The music is delivered as if it were a gift to be given to an audience in awe, without superiority or spectacle. By nature not a band which commands much stage diving, moshing or any crowd activity at all (other than the obligatory head-nod / sway) the majority of the audience found the best way to appreciate the sound was simply to absorb it, eyes shut. Massive Attack produce a very internal, harmonious sound, and even though at some points the bass felt more like cardiac massage, it was overall effortlessly balanced.
And so it was that Mushroom, 3-D and Daddy G provided us with a pastiche of their brightest and best. With a big input from long-time Massive contributor, reggae singer Horace Andy and an anonymous female, they gave us all the expected: ‘Karmacoma’, ‘Risingson’, ‘Teardrop’ and ‘Mezzanine’, as well as the less familiar and some new mastery. A suddenly enthusiastic audience called for an encore which ended naturally with the sublime Massive Attack calling card, ‘Unfinished Sympathy’.
It was not your average gig; in their own inimitable way Massive Attack play on a different level - Mezzanine.
