The '90s Retaliate with Massive Attack!

To be fair, although their heyday was definitely the '90s, British band Massive Attack has actually been out there making music on and off, in one form or another, since they first appeared on the scene way back in 1988, and in fact they are in the process of putting together a new album right now (with the intriguing and provocative title of Weather Underground). Apparently only original members Robert "3D" Del Naja and Grant "Daddy G" Marshall are left now - we miss Tricky! - but in whatever format they now exist, they'll be performing at the Tower Theatre tomorrow night.

Earlier this year, Massive Attack put out a collection of their past work, featuring a few new and rare tracks, entitled, appropriately enough, Collected, and we've been listening to it with pleasure. It's a solid collection of consistently good songs that does an excellent job of showing off the band's eclectic sound, which can range from classical to jazz to hip hop to rap to pop rock to electronica to dance, sometimes all in the same song. Collected also comes with a DVD featuring all of the band's music videos to date, including a particularly cool one directed by our old friend Michel Gondry. Remember that these are British videos though; one is basically a stripper lip-syncing to their song while going through her whole routine - straight through to the full monty, with no black bars or tasteful camera movements to block the view. This Phillyist, used to the typical sexually-charged - but carefully censored - American music video, was pretty surprised to see that (and a bit uncomfortable about it, too, considering I was watching it on my iPod on a packed PATCO train at the time).

We doubt there'll be much nudity at the show on Saturday, but we're pretty sure there will be some groovy tunes. Tickets are still available as of this writing, so get 'em while they're hot.

Massive Attack
The Tower Theatre (69th & Ludlow, Upper Darby)
Sat, 9/30, 8PM
$29.50-$49.50
Tickets

Photo of the boys by Flickr user ario_j