:: GussetBLOG ::

:: Tuesday, August 26, 2003 ::

Massive Attack, Queens Square, Bristol, 25.08.03

Although the local news insisted yesterday morning that 20,000 fans would be descending on Queens Square for this gig tickets were still being sold on the gate when we arrived and fly posting had gone insane in the last few days in an attempt to temp people in (even saw posters in Swindon last week).

Despite all the complex (and grammatically appalling) small print on the back of the ticket the promoters had decided to make up some extra rules on the day. We were told in advance that we would be allowed to bring our own non-alcoholic drinks onto the site (up to 1ltr each) and considering how hot it’s been recently we did this, only to get to the gate and be told that the promoter had decided that morning to add the caveat that you couldn’t take the bottle tops in with you. Were they really that worried about making enough money that they were hoping people drinks would be consumed quicker, get spilled, or simply evaporate in the absence of bottle lids and thus they would have to go to the presumably extortionately priced bar? Maybe they would have been better off trying to get some money out off all the stingy bastards who stood outside the fence in the Hole in the Wall garden listening all day? This pathetic bottle lid thing did cause me to get into an argument with the girl on the gate. Amanda felt I’d laid into her too heavily and probably upset her. Like there is any other way of doing it. Am I supposed to ask to speak to her supervisor and expect to actually get to speak to someone who will do something about it? No. If I’m lucky she’ll think I’m a pest and let me off hoping none of her colleagues saw her commit the heinous crime of allowing a bottle top on to the site. If not, then she’ll hopefully get the same sort of abuse for the rest of the day and hand in her notice because her employers are a complete bunch of cunts. If she kills herself that wasn’t my intention.

Other than these gripes the venue was good, with reasonable toilet facilities, adequate choice of (fried) food etc. It would be nice to see more gigs here; Bristol so badly needs a large concert venue. I don’t think there has been anything in Queens Square since the millennium thingy. I doubt there were too many complaints from the neighbours judging by the numbers of them having house parties standing out on their balconies to watch. There was an EHO with a sound level meter hovering around the perimeter, hopefully not deciding it was unacceptably loud.

The PA wasn’t great. OK, so it had shit loads of trouser flapping bass and huge peak handling, but no in-fills were used so it sounded horribly tinny and shrill when you were near the front. It also suffered from occasional cracking, like a dodgy cable or a bad fader on a desk. Not sure what caused that but that’s not really good enough for an event of this size.

So this is what we saw:

Martina Topley-Bird
(What a bizarre name, you’d think she’d change it? But then, Martina Topley and Marina Bird both sound pretty weird too. The J-Lo style abbreviation to Martina T.B. probably wouldn’t help her career either. Top-Bird it is then)
Top-Bird was given a criminally short set of just half an hour. With half an hour for changeovers as well it hardly seems worth it. Her set didn’t really warrant much attention for the most part but the last few tracks (especially Too Tough to Die) really were a breed apart from the rest of the material. If only it was all that good. There was none of the spine-tingling vocals I expected after seeing her sing with Tricky on several occasions and I was hoping we might have even got some Tricky material, but alas, none was on offer.

The Bees
Interesting for two or three tracks but then got very boring very quickly. Nothing original, nothing interesting or nicely done about it, nothing even remotely catchy. Try harder.

Goldfrapp (Pictures)
Absolutely outstanding, my god that woman can sing. Every note from the album you would have thought unreachable outside the studio was reached, and even more flourishes added, this was a jaw dropping performance from someone who will be so much bigger in a few years time that it’ll be scary to think what waste her talent went to for some many years just doing sessions vocals. (Not that her performances on Orbital’s Snivilisation or the Nearly God album should be considered a waste.) There was plenty of material from Felt Mountain as well, which I was hoping for as it shows her range much better. And to top it all off she finished off the set by playing with herself inappropriately with a Theremin, what more could you ask?

The Streets
Not even interesting for a single track. Just generally all round boring as fuck. The same loop repeated endlessly, the same winy meandering waffle that would still send you to sleep even if it was a conversation in the pub with your mates, even the same banter between each track! Just how talentless is this fuck? Pointless waste of everyone’s time.

Massive Attack
After waiting 35 minutes for what was announced as a 20 minute change over the crowd was getting pretty restless, but when al the lights went down, a nice red LED glow emitted from around the stage, and some burbling synth lines started to build, everyone watched with anticipation. After about five minutes of synths failing to reach any sort of decision about where they are going and just wondered around building temporarily only to drop back down below the level of the general background chatter we were obviously being treated to what must have been the most pretentious of all wanky intros. Another five minutes and I’m beginning to wonder if this will be the entire set and no-one is actually going to appear on stage or sing/rap/say anything at all. Then it all goes quiet, the droning wasn’t even building into a track, it was a self-contained ten minute solo of keyboard buffoonery taken to an extreme Keith Emmerson could only have ever dreamed about. The band finally take the stage, some lovely looking visuals flit across the screen like flickering static and we get to hear one of the 100th Window tracks, but I cant remember which one. The visuals are the most interesting thing going on at this stage, with some nice LED flashing static and sweeps of flickering red lights sweeping backwards and forwards and text describing the current location which gets a cheer of its own. We then get treated early on to quite a few tracks from Mazzenine, a couple from 100th Window, and Karamacoma. Horace Andy performs his usual duties, but makes Angle sound like it was being murdered by a pub singer. Daddy G had returned from his sabbatical for the gig, whether he appeared on any of the rest of the tour I don’t know. They were just playing Teardrop when I left (Amanda couldn’t stand anymore of it and nothing was going to better the Goldfrapp performance) and we just heard Inertia Creeps as we made are way away from the site. A nice ending to the evening. And I was presently surprised to find the car hadn’t been broken into considering where I left it.

:: Dan 26.8.03 [Arc]    ::
...