Massive Attack Turn Co-Op Live into a Theatre of Sound, Vision, and Resistance

Co-Op live Arena, Manchester, 5th June 2025

WORDS / IMAGES PAUL EVANS

Massive Attack,

Massive Attack have never been easy to pin down and when they take the stage at Manchester’s Co op Live Arena, it immediately feels less like a gig and more like we’re entering a shared psychic space. The lights cut to black and the crowd go silent while moving text flashes by on massive video screens. The bands politics have always been inseparable from their music and it’s immediately apparent that tonight’s performance isn’t going to be just an aural journey. It’s going to be a platform for expression. designed to unsettle, provoke, question and ultimately, move us.

A thought-provoking visual montage accompanies ambient sounds opening the night. It isn’t so much a song as a pressure drop into the abyss and immediately sets a contemplative tone, drawing the audience into the band's thematic concerns. The arena doesn’t erupt; it absorbs. The introduction seems to be less a concert opening and more a warning before In My Mind showcases the bands ability to recontextualize familiar songs. It’s reimagined as a slow, narcotic glide through isolation. The vocals loop over skeletal beats while strobes pulse like malfunctioning memory implants. It’s strange, hypnotic and classic Massive Attack.

Risingson demonstrates the band's mastery of atmospherics , before the distinctive vocals of Horace Andy dance over Girl I Love You with impossible fragility. Every syllable he sings a battle cry and lullaby rolled into one. The icy, crawling Take It There creates a profound emotional resonance with sparse arrangements and feels like walking through post-apocalyptic ruins. The song’s slow decay becoming an exercise in dread while the dub-infused Future Proof feels like a locked groove of surveillance-age anxiety.

The ethereal voice of the Cocteau Twins Elizabeth Fraser has notably appeared on songs that have become defining moments in the band's discography. Her announce and arrival on stage draws gasps from the crowd before “Black Milk” unfurls like velvet in darkness. Her voice a strange and celestial thing, arcing across the arena. The track, skeletal and slow, pulses with ambient heartbreak. Fraser’s vocals, as always, aren’t quite human and are more like dreams singing back to you. Without doubt the evening's pinnacle comes with a cover of Tim Buckley’s classic "Song to the Siren". It’s simply mesmerising. The arena falls into complete silence as Elizabeth Fraser stands alone in a spotlight, her voice unutterably perfect, hovering somewhere between ache and grace her haunting melodies intertwining seamlessly with the song's intricate instrumentation. You can genuinely hear a pin drop. Her every word feels carved into the air. It’s one of the most transcendent live performances imaginable. I have tears in my eyes and time stalls.

Returning from the heavens, the pulsating beats and hypnotic loops of Inertia Creeps create an immersive experience, slamming the crowd back to the sweaty walls of Manchester. With its exotic rhythm and Middle Eastern dissonance, it’s a paranoid carnival as the background visuals flicker and is Massive Attack at their most seductively sinister. Horace Andy's vocals imbue Angel with a haunting beauty, It feels like a building collapsing in slow motion. The slow build culminating in a powerful crescendo before Deborah Miller's soulful voice brings warmth to the classic Safe From Harm feels newly relevant, a protest song disguised as a groove. Her voice carries fire and sorrow, bringing a soulful defiance that lights the room. It’s fiercely emotional.

Unfinished Sympathy is a timeless anthem and the most famous song of the night and it still destroyed. Orchestral, lush and agonisingly bittersweet. Miller again brings power and warmth to Shara Nelson’s original delivery, and the crowd, swaying and lip-syncing through tears, erupt.

Another holy moment occurs with Teardrop. It doesn’t belong to this world, and live, with Elizabeth Fraser singing it again, it becomes a ritual. Her vocals swirl like smoke, like tides. The heartbeat kick drum throbs under an aurora of lights and slow-motion imagery. Fraser, vulnerable and eternal, sings like she is inside every atom of the crowd, her voice weaving a tapestry of emotion that leaves the audience spellbound.

Throughout tonight, Massive Attack have reminded us that beauty is not neutral. Behind every song, visuals tear at the edges: brutality, Palestinian protests, climate refugees, anti-corporate messages, NHS collapse, AI surveillance. The screens don’t just accompany the music; they are the message. The band remain silent, but the imagery screams. Tonight, has been a masterclass in blending music with message. Through haunting melodies, innovative arrangements and poignant visuals, Massive Attack have delivered an experience that has been both sonically captivating and intellectually stimulating. The inclusion of collaborators like Elizabeth Fraser and Horace Andy has added depth and diversity to the performance, while the band's unwavering commitment to activism has provided a powerful reminder of music's potential to inspire change. Something that needs to be congratulated.

SETLIST

1/ Intro-Present Shock

2/ In My Mind

3/ Risingson

4/ Girl, I Love You

5/ Black Milk

6/ Take It There

7/ Future Proof

8/ Song to the Siren

9/ Inertia Creeps

10/ ROckwrok

11/ Angel

12/ Safe From Harm

13/ Unfinished Sympathy

14/ Karmacoma

15/ Teardrop

16/ Levels

17/ Group Four

FOLLOW MASSIVE ATTACK

FACEBOOK

TWITTER

INSTAGRAM