Massive Attack - Sydney Opera House

[virgin: 2010]

Trip Hop on the steps of the Sydney Opera House
Martina Topley Bird, whose vocals mesmerised us on ‘Maxinquaye’,
Tricky’s debut album after he left Massive Attack, took the stage as support. All Polynesian princess in a flowing printed dress, frangipani tucked into her bleached afro she introduced herself behind a tight stack of keyboards, instruments and mics. What could have been a subdued solo performance was given substance as she built with live voice recordings then looped and delayed them to give depth while she tapped a tambourine to her hip and tinkered on effects. She was charming with the crowd and perhaps a little more confident in our vocal range than we were asking us to harmonise with her on new material.
A sweet selection of songs from Quixotic and her new album The Blue God helped the bulging crowd settle into the steps of the Opera House.


The stage was re-set with a one drum kit at one end and the second at the other, a stash of keyboards and black boxes in the middle and six mics across the front. The sticky sweet scent of mary jane wafted around the forecourt as all and sundry prepared for the performance. The stage was flooded in smoke and blue light and out of the blue smoke emerged the Massive Attack collective. Wowed by a wall of sound and an impressive LED screen flashing names of drugs in quick succession the pioneers of trip hop set their scene. 3D (Robert del Naja) led the rotating vocal crew of legendary Horace Andy, Martina Topley Bird, and Deborah Miller and when Grant Marshall or ‘G’ uttered his first word the crowd exploded. It was like 3D was having the time of his life conducting the best jam session the band has ever had. The dense sound, crazy lasers and LED wall scrolling philosophical quotes, media grabs (Pauline Hansson’s move to the UK got a notable arousal) and images fuelled the music further. The classics ‘Safe From Harm’, ‘Teardrop’, ‘Unfinished Sympathy’ and ‘Angel’ welcome alongside the new Heliogland tracks. Conjured under the stars in a better setting you couldn’t imagine, the crowd left in a haze with the resonance of Karmacoma still pounding in our ears as we descended the steps. Magic.



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