MASSIVE ATTACKed Copenhagen

There are only few bands/artists/performers that can bring their audience to the kind of an emotional orgasm that Massive Attack did yesterday in Copenhagen.

Maybe it’s their trip-hop sound or their powerful presence on stage, but one thing is for sure – they made every single molecule of our bodies move with the rhythm of their haunting music. Massive Attack are perfect example of that a band does not need 30 stage trucks of equipment and special effects in order to push their audience to the limit of complete ecstasy. They were simple, stylish, powerful, emotional…better than most drugs you could ever consume.  Bunch of musicians doing their thing the best they can for the art of it, not for its profit.

When we (me and a friend of mine) walked into the concert hall, Martina Topley-Bird, a pure angel, talented to the extreme was already opening for Massive Attack. She first gained fame, while working with Tricky – another Massive Attack associate. She recorded a song for Massive new album and now she is touring with them as a special guest. Her voice and experimental “one minute songs” were just the beginning of what was coming next.

Unlike most bands that take forever in order to appear on stage, Massive didn’t wasted too much time. Since I am in Denmark I do run once too often to a different concerts and by far, I’ve never, ever seen the Danish audience calling for the band (in the simple gesture of clapping in a perfect rhythm). And they appeared – first their guest musicians (after all Massive Attack is a duo, but they always record and tour with guest vocalists and musicians)  and after the opening with Bulletproof love Robert and Daddy G (or in other words – Massive Attack)  appeared to perform Heartcliff star.

And the magic begun. I was truly hypnotized by the powerful performances so I can’t really recall the chronology of the songs, but I was impressed by sort of the cover of Teardrop (for those of you not familiar with Massive Attack works, can simply recall that song from the TV series House M.D. – it’s used as an opening song of the series). Since the actual vocalist who recorded the song is not part of the duo’s guest musicians, the song was performed by the incredible Martina. The rhythm was performed in order to fit her vocals and it was live listening to a dub remix of the song. I loved it!

Another song that made the crowd screaming was of course Angel. Fortunately the actual vocalist, who recorded the song years ago was touring with Massive – the incredible performance of Horace Andy made me feel like I’m in an opium room. I even closed my eyes only listening to the depth of his voice and felt the lights on my face. Truly astonishing performance!

Among the playlist there were familiar songs and personally my favorites like Risingson, Unfinished sympathy, Safe from harm and a very special song for me – Inertia creeps. My first sexual experience was back grounded with that song

The concert closed with the performance of Karmacoma. With this emblematic peace of musical art the concert was over. Massive Attack alongside with their guest musicians and vocalist stayed for a while on stage to please the visual picture of them standing side by side. While looking at them I was admiring  their diversity  – people from different backgrounds, color of skins, views coming together and in peace pulling off a concert that I can only call pure art!

Another interesting thing about this concert was its political agenda. The modest visual effects were minimized to effective play with lights, words, numbers and characters. Throughout one of the songs on the background screen there were numbers appearing. Actually – prices. Everything was in Danish (before someone feels special, this is part of the visual effects – in Moscow they did the same slogans in Russian). At the beginning the amounts of money were pretty small – 55-120-235 dollars etc. and above the given amount there were things written that were concerning Uganda, Somalia, Sudan etc. Then the bigger numbers appear, alongside with the explanations – diamond iPod 55,000, yacht in Dubai 45,000,000 etc. etc. – there were just listing those insanely expensive items that some people buy, while others live with under a dollar per day. The final number was few billion dollars and I don’t really recall what was it about.

I always wanted to watch Massive Attack live and yesterday a wish of mine came true!

Here are some videos from the concert: