Gorillaz - London Scala - 22/3/01
4/5
By: Toby L
Set-List: 'M1 A1', 'Tomorrow Comes Today', 'Slow Country', '5/4', 'Starshine', 'Man Research', 'Sound Check (Gravity)', 'Latin Simone', 'Re-hash', 'Clint Eastwood', 'Rock The House', 'Dracula', 'Punk'.
Talk about anticipation. The evening kick starts with DJ sets from Bugged Out and Dan The Automator, allowing speculation to build up as to just what is gonna happen tonight. Will good, ole Damo turn up or not? How will this 'cartoon' band play live? Why are tickets changing hands outside for over £100..? Within the main bar area of the venue, a large television is perched on a stand, displaying the arena's events. From 8pm until 10pm, all it presents is a large, bare screen. However, come one hundred and twenty minutes prior to the witching hour, the hall is busting to the seams: some believing the Scala venue never to have been so full before.
Opening the show with screams and bellows that lend their sound to 'M1 A1', Gorillaz start in quick 'n' filthy mode. Should the album have been released a week ago, allowing everyone in attendance to know the tracks, then it's safe to say a mosh-pit could have been in full swing straight away, but instead we're resigned to swaying to the obscenely bass-heavy grooves that shake us down. The once grey and motionless screen in front of us has now become lively and full of colour, in the form of each of the Gorillaz cartoon characters, 2D, Murdoc, Noodle and Russel, as produced by 'Tank Girl' creator Jamie Hewlett.
There's a twist, though. Rather than the band performing in front of the screen, they're behind it. Thanks to the formulaic lighting control established - which must have been prepared some time in advance of this show - the screen is occasionally lit mid-song in a way that shows the outlines of each band member. Most relevant to the pack is Damon Albarn, the Blur frontman, present here tonight, despite him saying in the press he wouldn't turn up. Yep - there he is: centre-stage, baseball-cap adorning and grasping a melodica in his left hand, which he first toots on arrival of second track, 'Tomorrow Comes Today' - their first release. Played to a film of street alley ways and night traffic, it allows the song to be taken to a more down and dirty level.
As does the display during '5/4', which set out to disturb - and was victorious. A needle-carrying nurse attempts to frisk and fondle a tied up naked girl amongst the backdrop of frantic guitar and the words - also lines in the song - 'She Turned My Dad On' etching their way on to the projection screen. As the band's silhouettes throb through, it takes on a macabre spirit - it just all seems too surreal and odd to be decent. You may be thinking why this is the case. Well, it starts with the fact that these guys are represented as cartoon characters: the videos for the singles have an undertone that you can't put your finger on and it's certainly not innocent - each member even looks like they're up to no good... Plus, in between each of over ten tracks played during the hour long set, there are further graphics and mysterious phrases, namely 'Shoot To Ill', 'Kiddie Frighteners' and 'Zombies and Painkillers'. Back to this in a bit...
Meanwhile, the boomy rapping talents of Del Tha Funkee Homosapien aren't here, 'Clint Eastwood' and 'Rock The House' provided with alternative raps, the former creating not as much hysteria as it potentially could have, but one of the true singalong moments for the best part of their performance. One of the key elements too about this act is that try out many different angles within their sound, with 'Slow Country', 'Sound Check (Gravity)' and 'Latin Simone' providing reggae-fuelled piano, DAT vocals from an absent straggly-throated singer (Ibrahim Ferrer) and Albarn's plentiful yaps and squeaks. 'Starshine' itself was certainly a highlight: the sunset which was shone on to the screen was produced in such a way that Damon's shadowy figure appeared within the main ball of fire - encouraging the crowd to cheer at the slick effort put into it.
Rounding things off in the manner by which they set to start proceedings, 'Punk' sees heavy tub-thumping stomps and scrappy guitar against the lively singer's incomprehensible vocals. Ending abruptly, the Gorillaz characters once again fill the screen and allow it to stay that way, whilst, in the stage-right upper balcony, Sweetie Irie and Ed Case perform their remix of hit single 'Clint Eastwood', alongside ass-wiggling dancers, which help throw hundreds of phoney twenty pound notes, sporting their names and images on them, into the crowd below. It's an odd, though therefore, for this setting, more than adequate ending to a show which certainly pushed the limits of UK music.
There's a depth to it all, though, as expressed earlier, which seems to work its way into the subconscious. The reason to this is because not everyone takes it in and analyses it so much, merely happy to drunkenly dance along to the fantastically bold, dense and senses-appealing sounds that blast out of the speakers. The very fact that, when the members onstage address the crowd, with taunts to make us scream, such as 'Are you all with me tonight, London,' it's delivered in a vocoder-voiced microphone and you don't know who's saying what. As said countless times already regarding this outfit, they're a marketing man's dream, but some of the feeling they bring up could mean that they're also a vulnerable person's bad dream.
But, maybe there is nothing behind it. Maybe it's just classy, flashy and catchy tunes and nothing beyond that. Any suspicious-seeming pictures or insinuations could just be meaningless and throwaway statements designed to make you believe in something that's not real. BUT - even then - that would be a pretty unpleasant thing to push amongst followers of the band. It could cause controversy. It could cause upset. But, they can always play that grace-saving card, which is that they're only cartoons after all... But, are they..?
Photo-Credit: Jow @ Spirit
Artists in this article: Gorillaz
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