Description
Gorillaz, the world's biggest two-dimensional band, performed LIVE at the Manchester Opera House November 1st through 5th, 2005. Guest musicians included De La Soul, Shaun Ryder from Happy Mondays, and UK hip hop artist Roots Manuva. Gorillaz co-creator/producer Damon Albarn was also on hand to help bring the "Demon Days" album to life.
Track Listing:
1. Intro
2. Last Living Souls
3. Kids With Guns
4. O Green World
5. Dirty Harry
6. Feel Good Inc
7. El MaƱana
8. Every Planet We Reach Is Dead
9. November Has Come
10. All Alone
11. White Light
12. DARE
13. Fire Coming Out Of The Monkey's Head
14. Don't Get Lost In Heaven
15. Demon Days
16. Hong Kong
17. Latin Simone
One of the Greatest Musical Spectaculars of Our Time - Reviewed on 2008-07-18
If you are someone who loves music, of any kind or just appreciates talent and creativity. Then I HIGHLY suggest that you watch this DVD performance.
Grammy award winning Gorillaz are one of my favourite bands ever and their latest album entitled Demon Days, was THE GREATEST ALBUM I've ever listened to. I saw this DVD at HMV and I just had to get it, being a Gorillaz fan. I had no Idea how amazing this show would be.
Gorillaz are a virtual band from England created in year 2001 by cartoonist Jamie Hewlett and lead singer of Blur, Damon Albarn. In addition, there are around 86 more musicians involved including a symphony, a gospel choir, a children's choir, guitarists and many other brilliantly talented people.
Lead singer Damon Albarn is a creative genius. He writes all the brilliant music and lyrics. The stage is a beautiful sight, with Albarn and other musicians in front of a colour changing backdrop in silhouette.
It's not about half naked women dancing provocatively; it's not about arrogant artists rapping about sex and violence. It's just purely about music. Damon Albarn himself is strongly against music where artists have no talent and it's all about image. I myself would much rather listen to people like Gorillaz who actually have something intelligent to say rather than just blab about garbage.
Damon Albarn sits at a Piano at the back of the stage in black silhouette against a coloured backdrop that changes to the mood of the current song. He picked a number of interesting and diversely talented people to record the album and perform this show with. People like Ike Turner, Dennis Hopper, Neneh Cherry, Bootie Brown, De La Soul, MF Doom, Roots Manuva, Martina Topley Bird, The Manchester Gospel Choir, Shaun Ryder, Rosie Wilson, Zeng Zhen, Ibrahim Ferrer, Wayne Hernandez and many more. Dennis Hopper was at the other shows but couldn't make it to this one, so his voice is played over recording. Why they didn't release a DVD of one of the shows that he was in is a mystery.
The title track Demon Days suggests that we are living in the bad times where, to paraphrase their lyrics, `it's so cold inside and it's so hard for us just to survive and that you can't even trust the air you breathe'. This song is so powerful and seeing the breath-taking performance of it with the violins and cellos and gospel choir, it truly is breath taking.
I think everyone should be able to watch this concert in its entirety. But keep an open mind; Gorillaz perform a variety of rock, hip-hop, rap, dance, gospel, classical, electronic, even a couple jazz melodies are used. I myself listen to only rock but I loved all the hip-hop and classical tracks as well. I definitely think that Demon Days is the most well done song out of this show. But don't go skipping to that track, keep an open mind and hear all the different styles. It's really amazing at the end when the symphony breaks out and.... You're just going to have to see it for yourself! At the end of the show, Damon comes out into the light and shows his face, singing an encore performance. He received many standing ovations. I think why he doesn't usually show his face is to let people focus on the music rather than just image.
It's cool how they only perform in those red velvet theatres. If you're familiar with Gorillaz, watch this and you will never see them in the same way again. I think they are so underrated and deserve a lot of credit, especially Damon Albarn who composed all the music and picked all the people to record the album with. Although I would've liked to see Dennis Hopper do his bit, the whole show was phenomenal all the same; I wish I was there.
One person said it had way too many musicians and they thought it was horrible. Anybody who says that must not understand music. This DVD is a snippet of genious.
Buy it, rent it, borrow it, or steal it (just kidding:). You Must Watch it though! You won't be disappointed. Better yet, get the album too; A definite 5 stars.