‘Mezzanine XX1’ - Night 1

Massive Attack in Glasgow for their ‘Mezzanine XX1’ UK tour  

Massive Attack started their ‘Mezzanine’ tour in Glasgow last night.

I wanted to be there, despite the distance and a busy schedule.

The show marks the 21 years of their third album, that I describe in detail in my book about Bristol.

They surprisingly opened the night, which didn't include any first act, with a cover of The Velvet Underground‘s ‘I Found A Reason’, a song sampled in ‘Risingson’, which followed.

Here's my humble video recording for it:

Massive Attack cover 'I Found A Reason' by the Velvet Underground at the start of their Mezzanine XX1 tour to celebrate the 21st anniversary of their third album, in Glasgow, Scotland, on January 28th, 2019

Other covers include The Cure's '10:15 Saturday Night’ and Ultravox's 'RockWrok'.

They were performing with Elizabeth Fraser and Horace Andy. 

The visuals augmenting the show were provided by the British filmmaker Adam Curtis – who already worked with 3D Del Naja for a show in the Manchester International Festival in 2013. It brought a sort of saddening but keenly realistic visual representation of the past 50 years in our western culture, including images of royalties, political leaders and simple, naive everyday life amusement, in a sometimes puzzling, sometimes dazzling, sometimes violent manner.

(Photos by myself)

In a statement released on Monday, Curtis and the band explained that the shows bring “the story of the strange journey we have all been on over the past twenty years since ‘Mezzanine’ was released: How we have moved into a strange backward-looking world, enclosed by machines that read our data and predict our every move, haunted by ghosts from the past. A pleasure dome that makes us feel safe from the endless wars outside, and plays back stories both of dreams of glory and the fear of others. But in that safe world suspicion and distrust is spreading — like a virus. The air is growing stale. Everyone sees conspiracies everywhere. But maybe suspicion is control?”

The band played the entire songs from Mezzanine.
Video recording by myself:

Massive Attack - 'Exchange' (Live Glasgow, Jan. 28, 2019)

Massive Attack - 'Where Have All Those Flowers Gone'/'Inertia Creeps' (Glasgow, Jan. 28)

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Massive Attack’s setlist:

I Found a Reason (The Velvet Underground cover) 

Risingson

10:15 Saturday Night (The Cure cover) 

Man Next Door (with Horace Andy)

Black Milk (with Elizabeth Fraser) 

Mezzanine 

Exchange 

See a Man’s Face (Horace Andy cover)

Dissolved Girl

Where Have All The Flower Gone (Pete Seeger cover)

Rockwrok (Ultravox cover) 

Inertia Creeps 
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Angel (with Horace Andy)

Teardrop (with Elizabeth Fraser)

Group Four (with Elizabeth Fraser) 

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They are now touring the UK before Europe then North America.