Gorillaz are 25. In 2000, this cartoon-fronted project seemed like something fun for Damon Albarn to do between Blur albums, hiding behind Jamie Hewlett\u2019s comic-book animations, but they\u2019ve overtaken Blur almost everywhere but Britain. The number of children in the audience testifies to Gorillaz\u2019s powers of self-rejuvenation \u2013 an ever-changing vehicle for Albarn\u2019s ceaseless curiosity.<\/p>\n
Gorillaz are marking the occasion with an immersive exhibition, House of Kong, and four era-specific shows. This second night revives 2005\u2019s Demon Days. Co-produced by Danger Mouse, it remains the most satisfying expression of the Gorillaz concept: focused in both its themes (innocence and violence) and personnel (rappers and the rap-adjacent). Dressed like a hip vicar, Albarn serves double duty as a frontman and a conscientious host, although the original cast of vocalists is inevitably depleted. The late MF DOOM and awol Shaun Ryder appear only on screen, while Skye Edwards replaces Martina Topley-Bird on All Alone. Thank goodness for the old-school stalwarts. Bootie Brown enters Dirty Harry like a red-and-white firework before De La Soul boom and cackle through Feel Good Inc.<\/p>\n
Gorillaz with London Community Gospel Choir at Copper Box Arena, London. Photograph: Phoebe Fox<\/p>\n
Straight replication, though, is not the point. Beneath Hewlett\u2019s helter-skelter videos, the band, choir and string quartet give the songs new mass and drama. O Green World builds to a startling frenzy and the climactic title track blossoms gloriously. As stained-glass windows fill the screen and the London Community Gospel Choir chant the cathartic refrain, \u201cTo the sun\u201d, Albarn\u2019s vicar gear suddenly makes sense. The encore of three contemporary B-sides, while admirably disciplined, is somewhat anticlimactic. The luminous Hong Kong, starring the guzheng virtuoso Qing Du, ends the night on a melancholy question mark rather than an exclamation point.<\/p>\n
Then again, the singles notwithstanding, Demon Days isn\u2019t exactly a party record. This product of the Bush-and-Blair years was pitched as \u201cthe world in a state of night,\u201d drawing inspiration from horror soundtracks and the Specials\u2019 queasy crisis-pop. The show opens with a wartorn newsreel montage and sporadically drenches the crowd in hell-red light. For obvious reasons, the album\u2019s haunting protest against humanity\u2019s appetite for destruction \u2013 of people and planet alike \u2013 sounds no less apt tonight. Demon days are here again.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Gorillaz are 25. In 2000, this cartoon-fronted project seemed like something fun for Damon Albarn to do between…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":111708,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[49,48,75,341],"class_list":["post-111707","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-music","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-entertainment","tag-music"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/111707","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=111707"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/111707\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/111708"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=111707"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=111707"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=111707"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}