Music: September 2006 Archives

What an amazing year it has been so far for music. I've been to Coachella. I've seen Tool live three times! I've found a bunch of new amazing CDs (that I have yet to review, but will soon). And after not playing a single show in the United States for over 8 years, I have seen Massive Attack twice this year! They played in Berkeley California, at the Greek Theatre on Friday night, and Bill and I went up there to check it out:

Massive_Attack-092206-blue_red_graphic_effect.jpg

I had never been up to the Greek before, and it is a pretty neat place to see a concert. It's open air, and every seat has a great view of the stage. Massive Attack managed to absolutely fill the arena with sound (I wonder if any of the earthquake sensors caught it?) as they vibrated the Greek by playing:

  1. Live With Me
  2. Risingson
  3. Black Milk
  4. Man Next Door
  5. Butterfly Caught
  6. Hymn Of The Big Wheel
  7. Mezzanine
  8. Teardrop
  9. Angel
  10. Futureproof
  11. Safe From Harm
  12. Inertia Creeps
  13. Unfinished Sympathy
  14. Group Four

Particular highlights for me were the first song - "Live With Me" and "Safe From Harm". "Live With Me" is Massive Attack's "new" song, and it appears on their greatest hits album, "Collected". It was written by Robert del Naja, and as such, continues with the more guitar-focused vibe of more recent Massive Attack songs. That being said, I really like this song, and am considering buying "Collected" just for it.

Massive_Attack-092206-white_backlight.jpg

"Safe From Harm" was really one of the key songs for me, however, because I never-in-a-million years thought that I would hear Massive Attack play this song live. When they played it at Coachella, I was stunned. So, I was sortof expecting them to play it again tonight, and I wasn't disappointed. Not only do I really like this song, but it is one of the few off of Massive Attack's first album, "Blue Lines", that I still listen to. What is a amazing about how the band performs it now, is that the song has morphed into a treatise against Bush and the Iraq war.

All throughout the show, Massive Attack was displaying text and statistics on several LED-style video displays. In fact, before the band took the stage, they spent several minutes displaying fun facts about Berkeley (that the climate is considered to be Mediterranean, that 90% of the population voted for Kerry in 2004, about the Marijuana ordinance, etc.). During "Safe From Harm", Massive Attack's statisticians were at it again, but this time with statistics from the Iraq war.

I wish I had brought a better camera, because I would like to present some decent shots of what this was like (you can try Flickr for some decent in-concert photos, but I didn't see any that captured the text). It all made for an incredibly powerful experience - I have been thinking for awhile now that this Iraq stuff is a mess, but that really drove it home.

Along with Robert del Naja (3D), Massive Attack had Mr. Horace Andy, Deborah Miller, and Elizabeth Frazer on vocals:

If you squint, you can make out Elizabeth Frazer dressed in white.
If you squint, you can make out Elizabeth Frazer dressed in white.

While I'm not usually a big fan of the Horace Andy songs on the albums, he is great live. So is Deborah Miller - her strong voice made the best of "Safe From Harm", and really blew away "Unfinished Sympathy". Unfortunately, while Elizabeth Frazer's delicate voice makes for a great contrast on Mezzanine, she just gets blown away by the band live. I think they mic'd her up a bit more last night, which made for a better performance than Coachella, but it's unfortunate that her voice doesn't do as well in a live setting.

All in all, it was an amazing show. Massive Attack is (to quote Patrick) insane live - at any given time, they had at least two drummers, a guitarist, a bassist, someone on keyboard, and sometimes 3D working other machines and gadgets. This all combined to produce a truly massive wall of sound, that surprisingly sounded great.

If you get a chance to see Massive Attack live, I truly recommend it.

-Andy.

Technorati Tags: , , ,

TOOL for babies

|

I was chatting with Will-san last night, and he pointed me to "Rockabye Baby: Lullaby Renditions of Tool". This is one of those things that has just blown my mind - there is a certain part of me that absolutely wants to hear this album, and a certain part of me that doesn't.

Still, if I did have kids, I can't say for a fact that I would be buying this, or several other Rockabye Baby albums...

-Andy.

On Sunday, I headed up to Oakland to catch Tool live at the Oakland Arena. I'm not sure if Tool managed to sell out the entire arena, but the floor tickets (where I was) were definitely sold out, and the crowd was as wild as ever. Contrary to the last couple of shows, I actually tried to get up close, and as a result, had to fend off some of the mosh-pitting idiots. Here's a shot of the stage while it was still being setup:

The stage, being prepared for Tool
The stage, being prepared for Tool

The setlist was fairly similar to the last time that I saw Tool play, with the major exception that they played "Right In Two" live:


  1. Stinkfist
  2. The Pot
  3. Forty Six & 2
  4. Jambi
  5. Schism
  6. Rosetta Stoned
  7. Right In Two (with an intro that sounded like a bit of "Intension")
  8. Sober (with extended intro)
  9. Lateralus
  10. Vicarious
  11. Ænema

Tool's live show has certainly evolved since the Lateralus and Ænima tours. Thinking back, it was probably possible to see the change on the last tour, but it is certainly more striking now.

The main change that I am referring to is that you can actually see the members of Tool now while they perform live and on stage. The large video screens that used to take up the main stage have been diminished, and now actual lights focus on actual band members during the songs. How very... Rockish.

Look, you can actually see the band. And check out the half-displays. Weird.
Look, you can actually see the band. And check out the half-displays. Weird.

The video screens that were present on the stage of at the Oakland Arena were much shorter than usual - they only came up to MJK's shoulders. As a result, it was very hard to see most of the video from my vantage point (on the floor, reasonably close to the stage). The video was also played on the giant ceiling-mounted monitors, which was probably a lot more visible to the crowd that wasn't on the floor:

My view of the scoreboard at the Oakland Arena, showing Tool videos.
My view of the scoreboard at the Oakland Arena, showing Tool videos.

The other big change that was revealed towards the end of the show (for the last 4 or 5 songs) was the addition of lasers to Tool's visual effect repertoire. Oh so rock.

The new stage setup - the lights dropped down, and the lasers flared.
The new stage setup - the lights dropped down, and the lasers flared.

MJK really didn't talk much at all - he only talked in between songs like, 5 times. It added to the more "mechanical" feel of the concert -- Tool is usually so tight, that their live shows can take on that sort of feel. With the modified visual elements, the show feels even more mechanical than usual.

Diffuse green lasers and smoke for the grand finale.
Diffuse green lasers and smoke for the grand finale.

All in all, I'm glad that I went (even though it was actually pretty expensive), but I think that the last show at the Paramount was better. At least, I was far more into it. The pluses of this show: Adam was in fine form, and I got to hear "Right In Two". The minus was that it lacked a certain sort of energy. I get the feeling that Tool might be on the verge of wrapping things up after this tour cycle finishes. While I really hope this isn't the case, "10,000 Days", and this tour, will certainly be a fitting send-off.

-Andy.

Technorati Tags: , ,