Massive Attack @ Brixton Academy

Back in 2009 I discovered Massive Attack had released a new album for the first time in several years and they were doing a tour to promote it just after the tour had finished. I was disappointed to have missed out, though didn't realise it would be another 7 years until I got another opportunity to go and see them play somewhere which is not a festival.

All three gigs they played at Brixton Academy sold out pretty quickly, I bought my tickets the same day they went on sale. With these dates being later on in the tour, I took a look at the setlist website to get an idea of what tunes to expect. One notable absence from the playlist was Unfinished Sympathy, arguably their biggest tune. But then Massive Attack are not known for sticking with the norm so it shouldn't be much of a surprise really.

The band didn't arrive on stage until 20 minutes later than their scheduled time, it really annoys me when bands do this. It was quite a low key entrance to the stage really and it was when they played the third track of the night, Rising Son when 3D and Daddy G came to the front of the stage when they grabbed the crowds attention.

What probably grabbed the crowds attention most though were the visuals in the background. It was mainly political messages with a lot of focus on Syria, with a lot of statistics being shown. It wasn't all serious though, some of the headlines appearing later on in the show was a lot of nonsensical celebrity news with the likes of Kanye West being mentioned a lot which was quite amusing.

Most of the music played throughout the night was either new music or from their most recent album Heligoland. Then later on, more familiar tunes like Teardrop, Angel and Safe From Harm were played. One thing I noticed during Angel was that 2 drum kits were being played, which isn't something I've seen before.

They played four tunes in the encore, three of which were new ones and two of those featured Young Fathers who were the support act for the night. They finished off with Splitting the Atom from their Heligoland album, by which point I had made my way towards the back of the venue and made a swift exit once they had finished.

The following day I discovered that they actually came out for another encore to play Unfinished Sympathy, annoying that I didn't get to see that especially as like many people, it was the tune that got me into Massive Attack in the first place. Still overall was a good gig and would definitely go to see them again.