EarPIPE

Massive Attack @ Meltdown Festival & Radiohead @ Victoria Park

Thursday, June 26th, 2008 | Event Reviews | No Comments

The last couple of weeks at EarPipe have been manic in a musical sense. Firstly we were at Sonar festival the weekend just gone and we will be bringing you the full report soon. But we also managed to catch two gigs from two Goliaths in music. The first was Massive Attack at their opening gig for the Meltdown festival at the Southbank Centre, London. Being the curators for this year’s festival, they planned to do two live shows at the opening and closing whilst packing out the time inbetween with performances, showcases, talks and the odd silent disco.

The Royal Festival Hall was a spectacular venue to hold the band. Usually reserved for orchestras and the ballet, Massive Attack had transformed the stage into a cityscape of lights and equipment resulting in one of the most impressive and carefully thought out light shows for a gig I have ever seen. Their light installation added and enhanced the mood of Massive Attack’s dark trip hop stylings creating such an audio visual experience. The LED screen combined with the mood lighting really brought enhanced their music whilst also conveying messages adding a political stance to the gig. As for the music, the band moved through all four albums and even showcased tracks from a forthcoming album. Highlights for me have to be the beautiful Teardrop, the winding, dark Angel and of course the euphoric Unfinished Sympathy, which had the entire auditorium up on their feet. If you’re going to Glastonbury, make sure you catch them.

The other gig which EarPipe managed to catch was Radiohead’s final London gig of two on their In Rainbows Worldwide tour. Set in the heart of Hackney’s Victoria Park, Radiohead had a sort of mini festival set up. Large stage, big crowd and the great outdoors. The weather was clear and sunny. Aeroplanes floated over as they approached London City Airport. Truly a great local venue. Whilst their light show was pretty it was not a patch on Massive Attack. On the plus side it was all eco friendly using only the bare essentials. But for Radiohead that’s beside the point. Everyone was here to hear their new album and to see what tracks from the past they may dig up.

In Rainbows sounded phenomenal on the sound system. Crystal clear as the few thousand strong crowd floated away to Nude and Videotape. Bodysnatchers and 15 Step injected a great energy into the set whilst House of Cards ushered the sun into the horizon. After hearing live I think I can safely say that In Rainbows is their best work since OK Computer. Maybe the freedom from the shackles of big record labels allowed the band be true to themselves to create shear quality music. That said their back catalogue is by no means meant to be ignored.

A lot of Radiohead fans attend their gigs to play the “will they play their big hits” lottery. Usually they’ll drop one or two from the two albums which brought them so much popularity. But with this being their last gig in London at such an different venue, fully dedicated to the band and a crowd to follow too. Surely something special should happen….. and by god it did. Merely a couple tracks in from the new album and they slide into Lucky. The crowd go wild, I shed a small tear. Couple more tracks later National Anthem reverberates around the park and is shortly followed by No Surprises, launching the crowd into karaoke mode.

Lucky and No Surprises was special. Two of my favourite tracks from OK Computer. I had had my fill of Radiohead nostalgia, but they take it further. Harking back to the second album, My Iron Lungs and title track The Bends bring back the raw feel of their early days and have the old skool and now middle aged fans thinking is the early 90s all over again. If that weren’t enough the encore is finished by KARMA POLICE! Again the crowd sing in unison from start to finish with Thom Yorke’s angel like voice. The stand out moment comes as track finishes but Thom Yorke continues solo on his acoustic through another round of the chorus and the entire park complete the vocals. What a way to end the performance. But it wasn’t left there. The band return yet again to perform the second encore and finally finish with Paranoid Android!

What a perfect set, perfect venue, truly AMAZING, what a band. Radiohead we salute you.

Tags: Massive Attack, Meltdown Festival, Radiohead, Victoria Park