Who needs when you have ?
Before this weekend, it was Lady Gaga whose tour had left the most blinding and blazing imprint on our minds this year. Her was a stunning, if completely over-the-top, showcase for her legitimate talents, outrageous spectacle and FM-owning pop hits.
All that said, hip-hop hybrid Gorillaz matched her point for point on Sunday night at the . And they did so with a style that came off as effortless and an enthusiasm that was as contagious as it was fun-loving.
Damon Albarn’s pop dream hasn’t toured much, but three albums into the game, he and his primary collaborator, artist Jamie Hewlett, are more serious than ever about their dedication to the craft of animation (). As a full stage of musicians played against towering images of mostly-animated cinema, it was clear that all of Albarn’s many other collaborators are dedicated to the art of artful, if radio-ready, bangin’ tracks.
Most impressive about Sunday’s show was the overarching vision. The giant production –- which included a full band supplemented by eight horn players, a seven-piece string section, six Arab American instrumentalists and guest stars that included Bobby Womack and De La Soul (not to mention guitarist Mick Jones and bassist Paul Simonon of the Clash) –- was unmatched by any other show to hit the road this year. Itap clear Albarn has been mulling this big tour over for years.
“We’re doing what we’ve always wanted to now,” Albarn told me two weeks before the Denver date. “What we’re doing now is a good picture of the eclectic and energetic thing that we always envisioned Gorillaz was.”
Clearly. Also obvious is the time Hewlett dedicated to the tour. The animation jumped styles from creepy, life-like CGI to more traditional forms of 2-D animation as it told the story of this virtual band of misfits.
Sometimes the animation was simple, as in a girl in a mask standing in a giantap hand and playing the melodica. Sometimes it was complex, as in the kind of car chase scenes and shoot outs that would make Quentin Tarantino giddy (one shoot-out involved a real-life Bruce Willis and the animated band during “Stylo” –- odd, but it worked). There were definitely two-or three-minute spans where I caught myself looking only at the screens and not at the musicians, and I’m guessing Albarn is O.K. with that viewing style. Thatap kinda the point.
The nightap biggest moments came from the most obvious hits. When Albarn asked the crowd to call out, “Maseo,” it was clear De La Soul was in the house for “Feel Good Inc.,” which was the nightap biggest dance freak-out. (Nos. 2 and 3 being the perverted instrumental “Glitter Freeze” and the post-disco jam “Dare.”) “19-2000” was a treat, especially in that it showed the audience’s love of the various characters in the virtual band.
This tour was supporting the band’s latest, “Plastic Beach,” and there was a clear focus on that record’s music. “Superfast Jellyfish” was a throwback delight, what with its ’60s-styled chorus and its indie hip-hop beats. The concert started off with the creeper “Welcome to the World of the Plastic Beach,” a hip-hop jam that featured the talents of Snoop Dogg, seen on the setap giant screens in a top hat and suit.
Another new slow jam, “Rhinestone Eyes,” was an astral wonder with its stilted beats and spacey keys. “White Flag” got a proper intro from the six Arab American players and evolved into one of the evening’s most memorable jams. At one point, Albarn handed a giant white flag to a guy in the front row and instructed him to run up the aisles with it (that guy was Reverb writer Mike Behrenhausen, who is a massive fan and shelled out for the front-row tickets. ). The moment was as fun as it was poignant.
We didn’t get the “Demon Days” favorite “Kids With Guns,” but we did get “Dirty Harry” off that record –- which saw Albarn joining his back-up singers to sing the role of the children’s choir. Albarn was the nightap unquestionable leader, but his flow from the piano to the acoustic guitar to stage left with his back-up singers showed that he really views Gorillaz –- in concert, at least –- as a big, full-sounding collaboration. And that open-minded approach made for one of the most memorable concert experiences in the last decade.
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Ricardo Baca is the founder and co-editor of and an award-winning critic and journalist at The Denver Post.
Joe McCabe is a Denver photographer and a regular contributor to Reverb. Check out his .
