Just a quick post, that the first clutch of live dates for Massive Attack’s 2014 summer tour have been released. So far they are all festival dates around Europe (Iceland’s in Europe, right?), but I would suspect they will also be doing their own self-contained shows as well.
Click the image below to check out the current list of confirmed dates so far. At the time of writing they are only 9 dates announced, but I’m sure they will be plenty more coming soon, so stay tuned… And if your on Google+, don’t forget to RSVP for any of the shows your attending.
The new show will apparently be a continuation of the themes explored first in the Adam Curtis’s show of last year, but probably with the emphasise back on Massive Attack’s music and not a bunch of covers. If you had been to any of the Adam Curtis shows, then you would know that that particular production wouldn’t be possible to perform on your average festival/venue stage, so this 2014 tour will probably be some sort of compromise in order to take it globally.
So this will be more a return to Massive Attack’s previous live shows, even though it is possible the LED visuals may be nixed (a hallmark of the live show for over a decade now), as 3D has spoken recently about being bored with that particular stage setup now, and may try something different, in the wake of the Adam Curtis experience, perhaps involving screen projectors instead of LED screens to convey information during the gigs. Whatever they try next, I’m sure UVA will do a good job on the stage production.
Here’s that quote from 3D hinting that they maybe stepping away from the usual LED screen backdrop –
“In 2010 I thought the work that I’d been doing with U.V.A. (United Visual Artists) the LED work which we’ve been developing for a decade now, trying to keep it really pure and sensibility of doing data and alphanumeric and trying to keep it really really a sort of purist artform or whatever—that kind of reached its pinnacle really.”
So, who is going to one of the shows this year? What would you like to see on the setlist? Do you think this tour is the harbinger for a new Massive Attack album soon? Throw your answers in the comment section down below.
So I will make this short and sweet. I had two amazing nights in Dublin for Massive Attack’s kickoff shows of 2016. It was a real privilege getting to hear the new material been premiered live for the first time ever. And the Olympia Theatre is probably the best venue let alone in Dublin, but also the best type of venue to see a band such as Massive Attack play.
It appears the rumors of a Winter tour that was speculated about a few months ago turned out to be true mostly. Massive Attack will undertake a 28 date tour early next year across Europe, and will use this opportunity to debut “new material” according to a press release that went out today to the media. Details about the contents of this “new material” will be revealed shortly.
For this post, I’m going to be offering up my own top 10 moments (with video evidence courtesy of YouTube!), of Massive Attack performing live from their birth as a live band in the mid-nineties, up until last year’s controversial Adam Curtis co-production.