Anniversary tours are a fantastic thing. Where most tours promote a band’s newer work peppered in with favorite tracks and singles from albums past, anniversary tours often provide fans a rare opportunity to hear a set list comprised of their favorite albums from start to finish. As I age – and as my favorite artists do as well – it is always nice to know that I may get an opportunity to see these artists play music that I might not have had a chance to in years past.
The most recent news on this front comes from long time trip hop legends Massive Attack. Their highly praised, award-winning album Mezzanine turned twenty years old this April and the duo has decided to celebrate with fans by way of a North American and European tour early in 2019. To go along with this anniversary, the band is taking pre-orders for a remastered version of Mezzanine, which will also include a second album comprised of previously unreleased Mad Professor dub remixes. This will be available as a 2xCD set (November 16) or a 3xLP vinyl box set (November 30). Regarding these remixes, Pledge Music states:
‘All 8 of the Mad Professor remixes included here are previously unreleased and include his dub mixes of 2 tracks not originally featured on Mezzanine but from the same period – Metal Banshee – a dub version of Superpredators which was a cover of Siouxie and the Banshee’s Metal Postcard – and Wire, a track they recorded for the soundtrack of the film Welcome to Sarajevo.’
And if that news isn’t cool enough, the band is also releasing all eleven tracks encoded in 920,000 strands of DNA put into a spray can. For real. You can get some clarity and read more about this crazy process here.
So far, only the European tour dates have been listed, with the North American tour schedule coming out on November 2. Massive Attack has also stated that a few of their collaborators will be joining them on the tour, including the singer on “Teardrop” – Liz Fraser of Cocteau Twins. Check out the European dates below:
01/28 – Glasgow, UK @ SSE Hydro
01/29 – Manchester, UK @ Manchester Arena
01/31 – Brussels, BE @ Palais 12
02/01 – Amsterdam, NL @ AFAS Live
02/04 – Frankfurt, DE @ Jahrhunderthalle
02/05 – Munich, DE @ Zenith
02/06 – Milan, IT @ Mediolanum Forum
02/08 – Rome, IT @ Palalottomatica
02/09 – Padua, IT @ Kioene Arena
02/11 – Paris, FR @ Zenith
02/13 – Nantes, FR @ Zenith de Nantes Metropole
02/14 – Bordeaux, UK @ Bordeaux Metropole Arena
02/18 – Lisbon, PT @ Campo Pequeno
02/19 – London, UK @ O2 Arena
02/24 – Dublin, IE @ 3Arena
03/01 – Bristol, UK @ Steel Yard
Make sure to keep up with Massive Attack on Facebook for further news and the North American tour schedule. Don’t sleep on this tour, because who knows when we will get another chance to watch the duo perform their most widely acclaimed album?
