Massive Attack – Brixton Academy, London 17/09/09

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With the veteran Trip-Hop pioneers releasing new material this year, touring was always inevitable and highly anticipated, and after they announced a 3 date residency at the Brixton Academy in London I was keen to go and see them for the first time. As an immensely experienced and established act Massive Attack should always have put up a competent and enjoyable performance. What the Brixton Academy received on the 17th of September was definitely competent and in some stages enjoyable, but unfortunately it was far from excellent.

Don’t get me wrong, when Massive Attack wheeled out their old hits they certainly both got the crowd (of slightly drunk 30-somethings, I felt very young) going and were very impressive. With ‘Safe From Harm’ sounding as magical and impressive as it ever did, while ‘Unfinished Symphony’ held up the tail of the show with aplomb. These were to be the only two tracks from Massive Attack’s first album Blue Lines, a few Mezzaine and Protection hits held up the rest of the set list, ‘Angel’ provoking a very strong reception from the crown, although ‘Teardrop’ unfortunately fell rather flat. It could be said that the crowd were somewhat desperate for Massive Attack to simply play the songs that we all knew, but with as many as 4 new (and not particularly inspiring songs) littering the set, we enjoyed the performance but left with a definite feel it was not all it could have been.

Massive Attack were joined on stage by an impressive set of musicians, to help fill out their requirement for guest singers, the always wonderful Horace Andy appearing on stage, and an almost awe inspiring Deborah Miller (who was a perfect replacement for Shara Nelson). Damon Albarn (who has contributed to the recent Massive Attack material) even appeared on stage, but was a complete disappointment. Barely recognised by the crowd, his paltry contribution to new track ‘Saturday Come Slow’ was particularly uninspiring. The rest of the set was played competently as would be expected from such an experienced band, although Robert “3D” Del Naja and Grant Marshall have an annoying tendency to simply leave the stage when they are not required. This makes their entire performance seem professional (as I suppose there would be simply too many musicians on stage at times with them) but not particularly committed.

The use of lights and a screen behind the performers was however particularly well done and impressive. The screen seemed to be devoted to pushing forward the political message of Massive Attack songs. Showing quotes about freedom during Safe From Harm, and at one point a seemingly random collection of headlines such as Eddie Izzard Action Hero, followed by general headlines about how the UK government is curtailing freedom. It surpassed itself during ‘Marakesh’, showing a airport departures board of CIA extraordinary rendition flights. Whilst this display was impressive, in being so it was particularly distracting from the music which is after-all the main reason we had come to the gig.

Massive Attack were certainly far from bad, and it would be wrong to claim that they were. The audience did not seemingly go away disappointed, because at times Massive Attack were able to show us what a band they are capable of being. The new material may not be particularly awe-inspiring, and they may not have always struck completely home but the band are still enough of a musical force to keep an audience suitably entertained for two good hours.