Saturday Night: Massive Attack Intensifies the Horrors of Reality at the Greek Theatre
Categories: Over the Weekend
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| Richard Haick |
| Massive Attack at the Greek Theatre Saturday night |
Massive Attack
Thievery Corporation
November 6, 2010
@ The Greek Theatre, Berkeley
November 6, 2010
@ The Greek Theatre, Berkeley
Better than: Watching CNN.
If Massive Attack has a musical formula, it's one that's built around lulling you into a false sense of relaxed security, then turning the tables and plunging you into a nightmarish dystopia. The music is slow, creeping, subtle, dark, but ultimately -- for all its dream-like qualities -- it usually ends up being a cold harsh slap of reality.
Tonight, the Bristol, UK collective applies the same formula to its entire set. Two songs in, when Martina Topley-Bird comes out to perform "Babel," the shadows are already present, but not to a degree that's disturbing the Rave Move 101 blissed-out dancers, or the abundance of weed-smokers currently nodding their heads along faithfully.
It's when the unmistakable vocals of reggae legend Horace Andy (introduced by Robert '3-D' Del Naja as "the original original, of all originals") start ringing around this packed-to-capacity-arena for the mesmerizing "Risingson," that this set takes a turn for the truly bleak.
Tonight, the Bristol, UK collective applies the same formula to its entire set. Two songs in, when Martina Topley-Bird comes out to perform "Babel," the shadows are already present, but not to a degree that's disturbing the Rave Move 101 blissed-out dancers, or the abundance of weed-smokers currently nodding their heads along faithfully.
It's when the unmistakable vocals of reggae legend Horace Andy (introduced by Robert '3-D' Del Naja as "the original original, of all originals") start ringing around this packed-to-capacity-arena for the mesmerizing "Risingson," that this set takes a turn for the truly bleak.
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| Richard Haick |
| Massive Attack |
And on it goes.
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| Richard Haick |
| Massive Attack |
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| Richard Haick |
| Massive Attack |
Elsewhere, "Teardrop" provides a soothing mental break, and "Angel" is so utterly disquieting, moving, and alarming that tonight it feels like a song that literally everyone on Earth should hear live at least once. It is that immense.
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| Richard Haick |
| Massive Attack |
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| Richard Haick |
| Massive Attack |
Overheard: "I heard Massive Attack were friends with Banksy and I thought 'Whatever,' but after seeing this, I think that's probably true."
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| Richard Haick |
| Thievery Corporation |
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