It’s been two whole years since Gorillaz last performed live.
Damon Albarn and Jamie Hewlett’s joint project, created all the way back in 1998 in the dying days of Blur, always had the feeling of an idle ‘what if’: what if we created a virtual band, what if we had the freedom to explore genres in a way most mainstream artists weren’t – how far could we push things?
It also turned out to be spectacularly successful, producing several albums – most of which went platinum – and songs like Clint Eastwood and Feel Good Inc.
Of those, Demon Days was arguably the best. Laden with bangers like DARE, Dirty Harry and Kids With Guns, it packed the best elements of the band’s sound into a tight 51 minutes, a wildly inventive sonic punch to the solar plexus.
So who could blame Albarn et al for dedicating an entire night to Demon Days and nothing else, as part of Gorillaz’ four-night run at the Copper Box Arena?
Performing a blow-by-blow runthrough of the entire album, with some bonus tracks at the end, is the ultimate act of fan service: one for the true Gorillaz-heads. And when I say blow-by-blow, I mean nothing was left out.
With some raucous piano chords, the album title – Demon Days – appeared on screen, accompanied by snippets of soldiers at war, natural disasters; general apocalyptic destruction. The message was clear: we are living in dark times.
But at least we had great music; this, in fact, was the first time the intro had ever been played live. Momentous indeed; from there, Albarn launched into Last Living Souls, and we were off.
The stage set-up was relatively simple: a massive screen overhead, displaying the music videos for each individual track, while Albarn and his massive backing band jammed beneath.
Dressed in all-black, with (oddly) what looked like a vicar’s dog collar on, he seemed like the preacher at the world’s most bizarre congregation; an effect that was only amplified when, during DARE, he descended into the crowd and started spraying something that looked an awful lot like bottled water over them. A baptism of sorts.
Needless to say, they lapped it up, as he led them through the album. We had Last Living Souls, complete with apocalyptic wails from the backing band; that was followed by the snarling guitar of Kids With Guns, complete with Albarn shredding on stage with his musicians.
From there, he took to the piano for No Green World, providing a delicate tinkling counterpoint to the song’s crunchy basslines. We had De La Soul appear on stage to provide the iconic cackle of Feel Good Inc., Bootie Brown also made an appearance for Dirty Harry (though alas, Shaun Ryder did not for DARE).
Every element was there: the squelchy intro to Every Planet We Reach is Dead; performances of November Has Come and All Alone (the first time either track has been played live in more than a decade); a full gospel choir for the final track, which went ham on the religious imagery.
As a celebration of Demon Days, the night was immaculate. The only dud notes came during the encore, in which Albarn gave us a Demon Days D-side (We Are Happy Landfill) as well as 2007’s underwhelming track Rockit.
Things closed out with a gorgeous, delicate performance of Hong Kong with guest star Qing Du, but rather than the glorious chaos of Clint Eastwood – the band’s signature final track – we got a muted finish. Oh well: we still got an hour and a half of pure Gorillaz. It’s like they’ve never been away.
Copper Box Arena; copperboxarena.org.uk
