Gorillaz's first stadium show at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium was a staggering hi-tech spectacle, a two-and-a-half-hour mini-festival featuring a seemingly endless stream of high-profile guest stars. The audacious ambition and military precision of the event stemmed from the fecund imagination and magpie mind of Damon Albarn.
Eclectic Musical Journey
Albarn has never met a genre he didn't want to deconstruct. In recent years, he has transformed Gorillaz from a mildly gimmicky virtual band into a sprawling expression of his own musical curiosity. The days of holograms of 2-D, Murdoc, Noodle, and Russel are gone, replaced by Jamie Hewlett's striking graphics on giant screens, with Albarn—bearded in a combat jacket and beanie—acting as grinning ringmaster and MC.
The show featured virtuoso Indian musicians, reflecting the motif of Gorillaz's ninth album, The Mountain, including Anoushka Shankar's fluid sitar and Ajay Prasanna's skittering flute. Albarn skillfully infiltrated the falsetto pop of support act Sparks into the pulsing The Happy Dictator. For The Moon Cave, veteran cosmic-pop diva Asha Puthli shimmered in a silver cape alongside The Roots' Black Thought.
Themes of Mortality and Loss
Mortality and loss were major themes, with the guttural bark of the late Mark E. Smith bouncing around the stadium on Delirium, delighting both greying first-generation Blur fans and their excited kids. Malian singer Fatoumata Diawara brought keening harmonies and gorgeous traditional attire. A strong rap presence included Yasiin Bey trading rhymes with Syrian icon Omar Souleyman, Bootie Brown on the verge of self-combustion, and Little Simz spitting words like bullets.
When the focus shifted to India, singer Zanai Bhosle filled the shoes of her grandmother, Asha, who recently passed away. For the encore, Shaun Ryder materialized to growl through Dare before Posdnuos from De La Soul ignited the giddy delirium of Feel Good Inc. The night ended as Gorillaz began 25 years ago, with the sly, loping melodies of their debut single, Clint Eastwood.
The evening was an extraordinary triumph, and one can be sure that, as soon as he got backstage, Damon Albarn was already planning his next move.
