Massive Attack Prep 'Provocative' North American Tour

Posted on Oct 14th 2010 2:00PM by Mike Ayers
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Mark Venema, Getty Images

Although Massive Attack's fourth album, 'Heligoland,' was released way back in February of this year, circumstances allowed for them to play only five North American shows this past May. But starting Friday in Chicago, they're making downtempo electronica fans' dreams come true, as they've teamed up with Washington D.C. exotica experts Thievery Corporation for a rather large, co-headlining tour -- and they're promising it's going to be a whole different experience than anyone's seen in the past.

"Every time we go out, I try to rewire the whole thing, change the arrangements, mix it up, make it interesting, changing the visuals a lot," Massive Attack's Robert Del Naja tells Spinner. "Make it visually arresting, somewhat confusing and maybe a little bit provocative."

In doing so, Del Naja says that he and United Visual Artists -- the visual group he works with in designing the show -- take into consideration more than just what's around the venue in terms of a good pre-show snack. "We look at each place we go to, and look at the political and cultural climates of each place we visit, the economic climate," Del Naja explains. "It's about throwing a lot of ideas around and what kind of image you come up with. From my point of view, we're just traveling through. It's probably a very distorted image to natives."

Along with theater dates, Massive Attack will take the stage at the first annual "Moogfest" in Asheville, N.C., alongside Devo, Hot Chip, MGMT, Jonsi and Panda Bear over Halloween weekend. The festival pays homage to Robert Moog, unofficial progenitor of fine synth acts across the globe.

Massive Attack Tour Dates

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