LAURENCE MACKINreviews Massive Attackin the Olympia Theatre, Dublin
Deep mechanical rattles slither about in the lower frequencies, displaced by the monolithic rumble of bass lines. On screens, forms fall into and out of abstraction, giving way to scrolling numbers and a merciless onslaught of statistics, rendition-flight data and tabloid headlines. With this volatile mix of the political and the musical, and a low end that spends more than an hour and a half hammering at the chest, it’s easy to see why Massive Attack are consistently seen as the most important British band of their generation.
They have never been a band to do things in a hurry and fans have been waiting for a full new album since 2003's 100th Window, having to make do with the new Splitting the AtomEP and various greatest hits and live takes in recent years.
Here, the early section of the set is suitably dark and brooding, if not quite grabbing the crowd by the throat. A dubby reworking of Teardroptakes the audience by surprise, Andy Gangadeen's hallmark rimshots replaced by thicker snare punches. Martina Topley-Bird does a fine execution of the vocals, though it's not an entirely successful renovation, and some of the tension seems to have leaked from the song.
In the second half of the show, though, the classic tracks come thick and fast: Angelthreatens to rip a hole through the Olympia (with Horace Andy leading stylishly from the front), Future Prooffills the room with rampant menace, Unfinished Sympathy(with Deborah Miller on vocals) is breathtaking, and Inertia Creepsdoes its best to loose the pillars from the roof. It is staggering just how box-fresh and innovative these tracks still sound, and the new material presents plenty of reasons to look forward to the eventual release of album number five.
The backdrop and light show is suitably outstanding, although the concept hasn't changed since the 100th Windowtour. A barrage of corporate brands were flung dismissively on to the screens (including our own Bank of Ireland and Anglo Irish Bank – Massive Attack reckon it's costing each of us €2,200 to bail out that sector), along with a stream of figures comparing British MPs' expenses to healthcare-provision costs in Africa. One Irish TD even gets a look in with his travel expenses. Now who could that possibly be?
