The Massive Attack show at The Wiltern was pretty good. Although I have to say their show works better on a bigger stage, like on those at music festivals. I saw them a few years ago in Germany and was much more impressed. The light show was very well integrated with the music, especially the big led wall in the background. There was finitely a lot of political content to consume through that wall. Sometimes it was used as medium for content delivery and sometimes as a medium for light entertainment – actually most of the time both. It was definitely at times supportive to the music, but at other times it was also very distracting from the music. Too overloaded for my taste.

The music was very well played, as expected. But felt also too über-produced. The supporting act Martina_Topley-Bird, who also contributes on the Massive Attack’s album “Heligoland” did a great job in sampling her vocals and creating an amazing solo performance prior the main act of the night. But MA needed a little more rawness to not sound like fresh from the studio.

Last Wednesday, I had the chance to see the Dirty Dozen Brass Band at The Mint in L.A. This was a truly amazing band performance bringing the Soul of New Orleans straight to the heart of Los Angeles. The unbelievable talented musicians turned The Mint upside down and brought every piece of Mardi Gras they could bring on the tour bus to the Los Angeles audience. An amazing party over all and Jake Eckert on the guitar simply rocks! If your watching the Grammy’s this weekend, then you’ll see them perform together with Lil’ Wayne. Enjoy the show…

Last night, I could see The Sword in the Viper Room in LA and they played a really nice pure hard rock/metal. It’s been a while since I’ve seen a band that simply cuts the craps and gets to the point. Deep tuning and synchronous timing on the two guitars, bass and drums with nice straight beat made them sound really tight.

Additionally, it was nice to see that Dave Grohl from the Foo Fighters stopped by and enjoyed the show…