Massive Attack does Clockwork Orange – well sort of

Venue:

Rod Laver Arena ,Melbourne Australia

Date: 11/08/2026

This recent tour in more than a decade has been very divisive down here. Things got off to an interesting start with MA being banned in Singapore after displaying a foreign flag. I don’t think it was because it was a Palestinian flag specifically, it seems you can’t display foreign flags in Singapore. Then they started this brief tour – one show only in Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne. Melbourne sold out in 30 minutes. The first review I read by Andrew McMillen, a credible reviewer was deeply hostile saying he left the show feeling assaulted, that they had got the visual audio balance wrong and the political messaging was like being hit over the head. Another person complained that the messaging by David Byrne showed far more finesse. The debate raged a bit like Dylan shows. The fans saying ,well, what did you expect its Massive Attack versus the why can’t they just play music? But it did sound like this was to be a buckle up sorta show.
Disclosure. I have never seen MA before and while I have quite a few of their albums in the collection, largely via Mrs Wells I do have trouble identifying particular songs. I will append a link to the set list in the comments. It will show a heavy emphasis on mezzanine and covers of bands they say influenced them a lot.
The show was at the biggest inside venue in Melbourne, Rod Laver Arena. GA below and us in seats. Good seats but looking at photos from the show – those near the front would have had a significantly different experience. This is because the band were largely shrouded in semi-darkness so only those up close would have seen the performers properly. Even the side screens displayed headshots mainly in a grainy black and white. Instead, the visuals were dominated by a massive screen which when it wasn’t showing clips, statistics or images ran endless lines of computer code in red/orange. Embedded within this code were messages such as ‘Can we feel love anymore’ or ‘XXXX million intel chips were produced this year’. That sort of thing. From my seat I couldn’t read most of this stuff.
A lot of the controversy was about images and statistics from the destruction of Gaza, the display of the flag, the Free Palestine shouts etc. For mine it is great to have bands displaying such militance in a largely depoliticised musical scene. And anyone with a passing knowledge of MA should have expected the politics especially given where things are at these days. Then again people still complain that Bob doesn’t play the hits or that he sings them different. One of our group said “they are a lot ,more political these days”. My daughter responded “well the world is a lot more fucked these days”. Quite. I spent a lot of the time with my eyes closed to focus on the music and avoid the strobes aimed directly into our eyes. But for those transfixed by the visuals it was indeed a Clockwork Orange type thing. A continuous barrage of images and messages, with thundering music played by shadowy figures.
The show started bang on 8.30 went for an hour forty , no encore and closed with Teardrop. Along with Robert and Daddy G we had the welcome presence of Horace Andy and Elizabeth Fraser plus Deborah Miller Doing Shara Miller’s stuff. I thought the vocals were a bit undermixed and Elizabeth Fraser, to be honest, sounded like it was harder work for her. The music was harder more muscular than with some wonderful extended outtros.
Applause between songs was muted but it wasn’t that sort of show. After a barrage of heavy images and stats with a sonic wall to match, clapping seemed a bit out of place. But come the end clapping was replaced by a standing ovation.
Am I glad I went? For sure. Would I go again? Probably not.

The audience:

Prob forties the median, but a range.

It made me think..

I wonder how they decided what facts and clips to use?

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