{"id":852222,"date":"2026-08-12T04:50:13","date_gmt":"2026-08-12T04:50:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/852222\/"},"modified":"2026-08-12T04:50:13","modified_gmt":"2026-08-12T04:50:13","slug":"massive-attack-rod-laver-arena-review-beloved-band-puts-on-a-visual-spectacular-in-melbourne","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/852222\/","title":{"rendered":"Massive Attack Rod Laver Arena review: Beloved band puts on a visual spectacular in Melbourne"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Liam<\/p>\n

August 12, 2026 \u2014 11:57am<\/p>\n

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MUSIC
Massive Attack \u2605\u2605\u2605\u2605\u2605
Rod Laver Arena, August 11<\/p>\n

Since forming in 1988, Massive Attack has made a couple of the greatest albums of all time and nudged the top of the pop charts. They also have a decades-long history of anti-war and human rights advocacy, most recently for Palestine.<\/p>\n

\"GrantGrant Marshall of Massive Attack performs on stage in Melbourne.Richard Clifford<\/p>\n

They were recently detained in, and then banned from, Singapore after expressing solidarity and unfurling a Palestinian flag on stage \u2013 contravening a ban on displaying foreign flags. This was just prior to arriving in Australia, home of our own cool and normal discourse.<\/p>\n

Now that we\u2019ve addressed the elephant in the room, we can move past the ugly business of politics and talk about how much fun we had at the Massive Attack show.<\/p>\n

Just joking! Of course that\u2019s not what happened! Anyone hoping for an uncomplicated night of nostalgia at the paranoia factory would have walked away disappointed. Likely crawled away, with ears, eyes, and brain bleeding.<\/p>\n

Music takes a back seat on this tour. The players, including core members Robert \u201c3D\u201d Del Naja and Grant \u201cDaddy G\u201d Marshall, perform mostly in the shadows, ceding the floor to a visual experience that\u2019s equally mesmerising and assaultive.<\/p>\n

\"MassiveMassive Attack on stage at Rod Laver Arena.Richard Clifford<\/p>\n

As the first bars land, morbid statistics cascade across the screen: children killed by guns in the US this year, in various wars. It rarely gets more cheerful. AI surveillance, hate speech, influencers (Australian wellness grifters get a shout-out), aspiring fascists, conspiracy theories, tax havens, K-pop dance routines juxtaposed with government massacre. Whenever the audience is threatened with a good time, it\u2019s followed by apparently limitless footage of war crimes committed by some of Australia\u2019s allies.<\/p>\n

A nightmarish tour of the internet gives way to a map of Palantir\u2019s chokehold on the planet, then to the Congolese children mining the minerals behind it. Cumulatively an overwhelming panorama of the digital psychosis engulfing the world, soundtracked by Massive Attack.<\/p>\n

The band itself? Note perfect. Especially when feature artists emerge from the shadows to lend themselves to tracks. Roots reggae singer Horace Andy laces Hymn of the Big Wheel with gravitas. Deborah Miller sings Shara Nelson\u2019s parts on Safe from Harm with such transcendent beauty and power the crowd roars with every high note. Former Cocteau Twin Elizabeth Fraser\u2019s ethereal, haunting voice is undiminished, both on the Tim Buckley cover Song to The Siren and show closer Teardrop.<\/p>\n

\"MassiveMassive Attack is note perfect in their first Melbourne performance in 16 years.Richard Clifford<\/p>\n

A panacea of a song at any time, but when the screens finally go dark and politics leaves the room for three minutes, it tips towards the sublime.
Reviewed by Liam Pieper<\/p>\n

The Booklist is a weekly newsletter for book lovers from Jason Steger. Get it delivered every Friday<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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\"LiamLiam Pieper<\/a> is the author of Appreciation, a book about art and fame.Connect via X<\/a>.From our partners<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"August 12, 2026 \u2014 11:57am Save You have reached your maximum number of saved items. Remove items from…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":852223,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[64,63,134],"class_list":["post-852222","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-entertainment"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/852222","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=852222"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/852222\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/852223"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=852222"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=852222"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=852222"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}