The face of the ticket says “The Gorillaz” but other than front man Damon Albarn it is impossible to know who from the band’s dozens of collaborators will be on stage. Considering the myriad of top tier performers it is an accomplishment that the virtual act can tour at all. But touring they are and on the 26th of October they even found the time to roll through Phoenix Arizona.
The show opened with a prerecorded performance by Snoop Dogg and was followed by older tracks “19-2000” and “Last Living Souls.” Not even 3 songs deep into the show the stage had already scene appearances by Bobby Womack, Rosie Wilson and Bootie Brown of the Pharcyde.
A Jamie Hewlett cartoon that narrated the concert had the digital version of the band locked in a dressing room while some other warm up group entertained. While the storyline of the dressing room felt slightly disjointed and incomplete other Hewlett animations played during the concert were inspired. More often than not video screens at large arenas are hi-def aplogies for the fact we all can’t have front row seats. This exception to the rule would have remained as engaging on a small screen and without an amazing live band.
Seeing “Dirty Harry” live scratched an item off of my “do before dead” list. Two other highlights were a guest appearance by De La Soul on the song “Superfast Jellyfish,” and when Kano and Bashy took over the lyrics for Del on the encore track “Clint Eastwood.”
In the entire event was a highly orchestrated masterpiece carried out by natural born performers. The term concert seems one dimensional for a musical performance with a story and nautical motif. When you see stage design, music, and visual performance coming together the face value of the ticket seems more than justified.
