In the earliest days of Damon Albarn’s pet project Gorillaz, a large projection screen shrouded the live touring band while visuals of the virtual band members drawn by Jamie Hewlett played throughout the show. Of course, in those days, the only band who toured with a 40+-foot LED wall was U2. Times and technology have changed a lot since then, and these days Gorillaz concerts are presented featuring both the stunning visuals of virtual band members, while the human band members play on an open stage for the audience to see. On their recent visit to Boston earlier this week, there were as many as 16 people on stage at one time or another.
With what amounted to a “Bona-Fide” orchestra behind him, Albarn led the charge into TD Garden on Tuesday night touring ahead of Gorillaz eighth studio album, Cracker Island. The new record will bring a star-studded lineup of features, including Bad Bunny, Beck, and even Stevie Nicks. Par for the course on Gorillaz records that typically feature collaborations with several a-list names.
Though promoting the upcoming record, Tuesday’s set went heavy on the band’s earliest material, with 19 of the 27 songs played being from their first three records. Albarn decided to make his way down off the stage and into the audience early on in the set during “19-2000” one of their oldest tracks. Later on in the set, Gorillaz would bring out some special guests as openers Earthgang would join them during “Opium” and Malian singer Fatoumata Diawara, coming out for “Désolé” as she has done sporadically during the tour.
Longtime collaborator Bootie Brown performed three separate songs, coming out for “Dirty Harry” during the main set, and the first two of the encore, “New Gold” and “Stylo.” Long Island hip-hop trio De La Soul would join for the Grammy-winning track “Feel Good Inc.” on which they were originally featured. For his part, Albarn seemed to be having the time of his life on stage, smiling and laughing his way through most of the gig. Gorillaz human members, the core of which has been together since 2017, have become a finely tuned machine with each musician getting some time to shine on their own.
With all that has changed in both music and live event production over the years, Gorillaz were always ahead of their time, putting on concerts with a virtual band long before 2020, when the majority of concerts were virtual. But the advancement of technology has also made the experience much more immersive with impeccable sound quality and elaborate visuals to accompany each song. Though many concerts now feature the same elements, Albarn still chooses to walk the path less traveled, opting for an entirely live sound in an era where a rapper performing with a single DJ and laptop handling instrumental duties is considered more than acceptable. The opportunities for what you can do with a virtual band have expanded exponentially in the era where content is king, and with the time and effort Albarn has been putting into Gorillaz these last few years, it seems he knows their time is now.
PHOTO GALLERY BY John Hutchings
