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March 20th - Entertainment Centre, Adelaide, Australia

The cosmic joker is at work again, dropping Bristol’s Massive Attack in Adelaide on the very day that Operation Iraqi Freedom begins. During the 1991 Gulf War, the band was forced to cut their name to 'Massive' to ensure continued Radio play!
The more things change the more they stay the same. Exactly 12 years after that conflict, Massive Attack is once again embroiled in events transpiring in Iraq, although Robert ‘3D’ Del Naja’s heightened celebrity position ensures that no such passivity reoccurs and this time his opposition to the US invasion is publicised more formidably. Shrugging of the drug and child pornography busts that he has endured over the past two weeks, Del Naja emerges at the Adelaide Entertainment Centre tonight with one thing predominantly on his mind...
Taking to the stage with the lights down low and a blue hue cast across his face, 3D links hands with his nine fellow performers and states, “As you know, the invasion of Iraq began today. We’d like to take a minute of your time to think about the civilians caught up in this war.” After offering a dignified minute of silence, the 4000 strong crowd is applauded by 3D and the music arrives with new album 100th Window’s opening blast, 'Future Proof'. A deceptively simple digital screen of binary codes flash behind 3D before intensifying to a wave of colours and patterns as the song reaches its peak.
While the rotating roster of Massive Attack collaborators Mushroom, Madonna, Tricky, Shara Nelson, Tracey Thorn and Liz Fraser are all absent tonight, mainstay Horace Andy makes a welcome appearance as he swaggers to the front of the stage and delivers his trademark vibrato on 'Everywhen'. Although his performance is sadly not as perfectly crisp as in the studio, the crowd cheer him warmly as gentle giant Grant ‘Daddy G’ Marshall and 3D emerge from the wings. To drown media speculation that internal rifts caused Marshall to be excluded from the making of 100th Window, a grinning 3D hugs big Daddy and exclaims, “The best of friends!” before the undulating Risingson commences.
Scottish singer/songwriter Dot Allison, formerly of similar dub-pop act One Dove, asserts her place in the Massive Attack live collective by delicately projecting her voice over the strains of 'Black Milk'. Looking like a blonde pixie in front of the sparkling digital backdrop, only the cheeky grin she gives when she drops her guitar pick betrays Allison’s pokerfaced delivery.
With the 10 metre screen exploding with virus names, chemical symbols and lists of South Australian towns and postcodes during each song, it is hardly surprising that only a cluster of dates into the World Tour, 3D himself is still enjoying watching the images flicker behind him between vocal obligations. Offerings such as 'Special Cases' and 'Butterfly Caught' stand out as exceptional visual and aural displays, however Dot Allison fails to capture the fragile ethereal lilt of Liz Fraser on Mezzanine’s 'Teardrop'.
Shara Nelson’s substitute, Debra, a leather clad diva who is never fully introduced to the crowd, proves to be a better surrogate performer. Having first appeared alongside Horace Andy on 'Hymn Of The Big Wheel', she masterfully tackles 'Safe From Harm' while a relaxed looking 3D draws on his cigarette and watches military finance statistics flash across the backdrop. After the rousing 'Inertia Creeps' and 'Antistar' during the initial encore, Debbie returns for an immense version of 'Unfinished Sympathy'.
While much of tonight’s show is obviously based on DAT recordings – including much of the rumbling bass that represents a core element of the Massive Attack sound – the final encore shows that the musicians backing tonight’s performers are all experts. 3D takes to the stage and exclaims, “I should be a proper gentleman and introduce Dot Allison properly” before both commence volleying lyrics back and forth on 100th Window’s 'Group Four'.
While the swarming sounds of the lengthy rocky jam that conclude tonight’s show reverberate around the room, all ten performers return to the stage to bask in the cheers from the responsive crowd. Giving a final peace sign to the roaring fans, 3D and his troops leave the stage, knowing that tonight’s concert has triumphed in the face of intensifying global conflict.

1 Future Proof
2 Everywhen
3 Risingson
4 Black Milk
5 Angel
6 Special Cases
7 Butterfly Caught
8 Name Taken
9 Teardrop
10 Mezzanine
11 Big Wheel
12 Safe From Harm
13 Inertia Creeps
14 Antistar
15 Unfinished Sympathy
16 Group Four

by Scott McLennan





photos by Mazzie