The Attack That Is Massive
OK, I’m still recapping the events of the weekend before last. What with school and all it’s a little hard to keep up.
My second concert of the weekend was Massive Attack. Luckily there was a day in-between Ween and MA. Before the concert I was a little bit worried about how Massive Attack would sound live. Their records are incredibly dense, and I wasn’t sure if they could carry that heavily produced sound to a live setting. Um, those concerns were totally unfounded. The band was outstanding. I was disappointed to hear that Daddy G would not be in attendance due to the birth of his child, but his absence didn’t really detract much from the proceedings. The guest vocalists were absolutely amazing and were the highlight of the show for me. Elizabeth Fraser and Horace Andy were both in attendance, and were both in fine form. Hearing those voices live raised some goosebumps. “Man Next Door” was particularly good. Deborah Miller was also great, particularly on “Unfinished Sympathy”. My favorite MA album is Mezzanine, and I was very happy that they played all but 2 songs from that disc. The bass in the theater was incredible.
The stage setup was interesting, with a big bank of LED-like lights behind the band. There was also an LED message board of sorts just below the drum risers where various messages were scrolled right to left during the show (like on the Massive Attack website). Right before the show started there were a bunch of factoids about Dallas scrolled across the screen, which was kind of an interesting departure from the local-pandering practice of “Is (insert name of town here) ready to rock!?”
I was a little surprised at how sparsely attended the concert was. There were assigned seats, but about 3 songs into the show someone went up to the front of the theater and stood there. When it looked like they would be allowed to stay, a mass migration to the front of the theater took place. I was sitting on about the 6th row. After the migration I had to stand to be able to see, but that was OK with me. I wish I would have attempted to bring my camera because there were a lot of people with digital point and shoot cameras, and no one seemed to be hassling them at all. I just assumed that cameras were a no-no.
Allow me to digress a moment into the crapitude of concert talkers. When the revolution comes, I say the first ones up against the wall are the concert-talkers and the movie-talkers. These two jackasses who had been sitting in front of me moved to the empty row behind me after the crowd surged to the front. And they talked. And the fact that I could hear them during the songs was amazing considering how loud the band was. After throwing a couple of stink-eyes at them to no effect, I climbed over the seats and moved up two rows since there was room. Now I could see better and I could no longer hear the jackassasauruses.
The weekend concert bonanza was precipitated by the proximity of Dallas to Austin and the Austin City Limits festival that took place that weekend. Lots of bands on their way to or from ACL make stops in Dallas (or in the case of Ween, Tulsa). A similar thing happens in March with the South by Southwest festival. I actually prefer this to seeing these bands at a festival, because outdoor festivals can be a beating and you get abbreviated sets unless it’s a headlining act. You can get closer than 2 miles to the stage, and the sound is much better too. The downside is I actually had to miss one of my favorite performers, Aimee Mann, because she was playing the same night as Massive Attack. Seeing as how rare an MA tour is (they said it was their first time in Texas?), and the fact that I saw AM 3 (and a half) times in 2005, I can live with that. If I had been crazy (well, more than I already am), I would have attempted to see the Flaming Lips on Saturday. I’m not really very familiar with their music, but after hearing about their stage show I want to see it.
And big props go out to H for turning me on to MA. Alright!
My second concert of the weekend was Massive Attack. Luckily there was a day in-between Ween and MA. Before the concert I was a little bit worried about how Massive Attack would sound live. Their records are incredibly dense, and I wasn’t sure if they could carry that heavily produced sound to a live setting. Um, those concerns were totally unfounded. The band was outstanding. I was disappointed to hear that Daddy G would not be in attendance due to the birth of his child, but his absence didn’t really detract much from the proceedings. The guest vocalists were absolutely amazing and were the highlight of the show for me. Elizabeth Fraser and Horace Andy were both in attendance, and were both in fine form. Hearing those voices live raised some goosebumps. “Man Next Door” was particularly good. Deborah Miller was also great, particularly on “Unfinished Sympathy”. My favorite MA album is Mezzanine, and I was very happy that they played all but 2 songs from that disc. The bass in the theater was incredible.
The stage setup was interesting, with a big bank of LED-like lights behind the band. There was also an LED message board of sorts just below the drum risers where various messages were scrolled right to left during the show (like on the Massive Attack website). Right before the show started there were a bunch of factoids about Dallas scrolled across the screen, which was kind of an interesting departure from the local-pandering practice of “Is (insert name of town here) ready to rock!?”
I was a little surprised at how sparsely attended the concert was. There were assigned seats, but about 3 songs into the show someone went up to the front of the theater and stood there. When it looked like they would be allowed to stay, a mass migration to the front of the theater took place. I was sitting on about the 6th row. After the migration I had to stand to be able to see, but that was OK with me. I wish I would have attempted to bring my camera because there were a lot of people with digital point and shoot cameras, and no one seemed to be hassling them at all. I just assumed that cameras were a no-no.
Allow me to digress a moment into the crapitude of concert talkers. When the revolution comes, I say the first ones up against the wall are the concert-talkers and the movie-talkers. These two jackasses who had been sitting in front of me moved to the empty row behind me after the crowd surged to the front. And they talked. And the fact that I could hear them during the songs was amazing considering how loud the band was. After throwing a couple of stink-eyes at them to no effect, I climbed over the seats and moved up two rows since there was room. Now I could see better and I could no longer hear the jackassasauruses.
The weekend concert bonanza was precipitated by the proximity of Dallas to Austin and the Austin City Limits festival that took place that weekend. Lots of bands on their way to or from ACL make stops in Dallas (or in the case of Ween, Tulsa). A similar thing happens in March with the South by Southwest festival. I actually prefer this to seeing these bands at a festival, because outdoor festivals can be a beating and you get abbreviated sets unless it’s a headlining act. You can get closer than 2 miles to the stage, and the sound is much better too. The downside is I actually had to miss one of my favorite performers, Aimee Mann, because she was playing the same night as Massive Attack. Seeing as how rare an MA tour is (they said it was their first time in Texas?), and the fact that I saw AM 3 (and a half) times in 2005, I can live with that. If I had been crazy (well, more than I already am), I would have attempted to see the Flaming Lips on Saturday. I’m not really very familiar with their music, but after hearing about their stage show I want to see it.
And big props go out to H for turning me on to MA. Alright!
Labels: Concerts
posted by JC at 9:32 AM
3 Comments:
A friend of mine went to ACL and said The Flaming Lips were incredible. I would much rather see Massive Attack though. Totally cool that you got to go to the show... and get so close up!
It must be Anne/Anna day around here! Actually, you're both foodies so you might find some common ground.
At the MA concert during the second song a lone piece of confetti corkscrewed its way down from the ceiling - it must have been left over from the Lips show the night before!
I'm glad you enjoyed the concert.. it sounds like you had a better show ala viewpoint and sound system than we did. I thought they really pulled off the onstage performance too - and I had my doubts!
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