Animated band preserves illusion in concert

By Mary Williams
Daily Bruin Senior Staff

The creative team behind Gorillaz played a great set that no one
could see Friday at the first of two shows at the Hollywood
Palladium.

The animated band, created by real-life musicians Damon Albarn
of Blur and Dan “The Automator” Nakamura, as well as
“Tank Girl” animator Jaime Hewlett, features the
fictional members 2-D, Noodle, Murdoc and Russel. During the
concert, the live musicians were hidden from view while their
creations, the animated characters, were shown instead.

While the animated aspect of the band steals a lot of the
attention, Gorillaz deserves equal notice for its musical
abilities. Friday, whatever polish was on the well-produced
self-titled album was stripped away for the live performance.
Singer Albarn’s voice was raw, the guitar was more aggressive
and the bass was more prominent in the mix.

This doesn’t mean the mellow moments on the album were
completely altered, rather that every component was made more
passionate than the original. The rock sections rocked harder and
the high wailing voice wailed with more energy. The fact that the
performance took it up a notch often made up for the fact that the
performers were hidden from view.

The opening act wasn’t covered by animation but was pretty
far out of sight anyway. Dan “The Automator” Nakamura,
Gorillaz’s producer and DJ, played a set on a low platform to
the side of the stage. A bored audience largely ignored him, as he
re-mixed hip-hop songs for over 45 minutes.

Maybe the audience’s bad mood, though, was more associated
with the fact that security was far too tight for a show like this.
Everyone was frisked twice and scanned with a metal detecting wand,
all purses were emptied and searched, and objects like pens, packs
of gum and cigarettes had to be returned to the car.

The audience had apparently recovered, however, by the time the
Gorillaz took the stage, and screen, opening with “M1
A1.” The crowd yelled and clapped in response to the repeated
opening line, “Hello, is anyone there,” which seemed to
warm them up far more than the DJ’s performance had.

The rest of the set list contained most of the material from the
album. One notable absence was “Latin Simone (Que Pasa
Contino?)” which featured Buena Vista Social Club’s
Ibrahim Ferrer.

Ferrer wasn’t the only guest on the album who was missing
from the concert. Del Tha Funkee Homosapien, featured on
“Clint Eastwood” and “Rock the House,” also
did not perform at this show (although he does play some dates with
the band).

He was replaced by another rapper who performed original rhymes
on both the songs, instead of mimicking Del’s work.
“Clint Eastwood” lost some of its luster without Del,
whose words made that song what it is. Nonetheless, the new MC
filled the void aptly, and the alternate version of the hit was
interesting to hear.

Throughout the performance, animation flashed on the top of two
screens ““ the lower being the one that concealed the band.
While the audience could watch faint silhouettes of the backlit
group, and occasionally get a vague glimpse of the musicians, for
the most part it was unable to see the source of the music.

Gorillaz’s strict adherence to the theory that the band is
not a collective of independently successful musicians, but is
instead a four-person animated group, was admirable but
frustrating.

The band members, as drawn by Hewlett, were a consistently
interesting visual ““ think the stunning “Clint
Eastwood” video minus the background ““ which is what
made their prominence over the real-life counterparts
acceptable.

Whether it was a band member playing against a solid background,
a gorilla marching across the screen, or outlines of the group
swirling in a pattern, the brightly colored animation was fun to
watch. However, removing the lower screen so that the audience
could see both the live and animated musicians would have been
preferable.

Gorillaz plans to record another album as a soundtrack to an
animated movie. Hopefully on tour in support of the follow-up, the
group will relent and let the audience see the wizard behind the
curtain.