19th September 2006 Celebrity Theatre, Phoenix, USA

False Flags/Rising Son/Black Milk/Man Next Door/Butterfly Caught/Hymn of the Big Wheel/Mezzanine/Teardrop/Angel/Future Proof/Safe From Harm/Inertia Creeps/Unfinished Sympathy/Group Four

Welcome to the Massive Attack British Variety Hour! We have lots of  pretty lights, a few guest stars, and lots of sights to see tonight! Not up on your headlines? It's okay because we've got those too!
Okay, so maybe that doesn't quite sum up a Massive Attack show, but that's certainly what it feels like. For such low key music, there's a lot happening onstage. The lighting scheme looks like a giant equalizer—which I'm sure was the point. There are a rather large amount of guest musicians on this tour as well, but that's probably so they can give a nice coverage of the back catalog. Being that this tour is the first in the States in nine years, and that it's to promote a greatest hits album, I'd say that all the extra folk are a nice surprise for fans.
Speaking of fans, I'd say that the kinds of people MA bring out are definitely an interesting bunch. On that note, every show I've been to at The Celebrity has had an interesting crowd. All I can really say for this crowd was that I felt like I could've been in any college dorm room smoking up or passing out.
Getting back on track though, Massive Attack does a particularly long set and has as much of a variety musically in their live show that a "band" of this nature can have. If you're not epileptic and are willing to fork over the thirty-bucks-a-pop for tickets, then by all means, go see them before you don't get the chance for another decade.
Score: 7 (of ten)
review and photographs by Rikki Lee
http://www.pucknation.com/index.php?mod=3&id=171&article=1387