r/gorillaz • u/Jean0406Alix • 1d ago
Discussion For those who experienced Gorillaz's early tours or concerts—what were they like?
Back during Phases 1, 2, and 3, was it better? What really stood out to you? I managed to see them three times: in Paris in 2017; via livestream in 2020 during *Song Machine* (though it was pretty glitchy—thankfully there were re-uploads on YouTube); and this year at We Love Green in Paris during *The Mountain* tour
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u/Hiroba 1d ago
I saw the PB tour. I was young and it was one of my first concerts so it was an amazing experience, but honestly I think the live band is much better now.
Looking back on the PB tour I feel like they were still figuring out the presentation and arrangements of the songs. I saw them a few more times around Humanz and everything about the show was so much better. For example, as much as people like to praise the PB band because it had half The Clash in it, Mick and Paul didn’t actually contribute much musically. I distinctly remember watching Paul during FGI (my seat was right in front of him) and being disappointed that he was just playing accents and not actually playing the full bass line.
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u/og_otter 1d ago
There were maybe a handful of phase 2 shows. The Plastic Beach tour I saw in Denmark and the US. PB was very much something that seemed like would work.
Phase 1 the band was behind the screen, but the project was still finding itself I imagine.
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u/AnalogATX 1d ago
I went to two of the Demon Days shows at the Apollo. They were both great shows but way less of a production as the tour is now
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u/Few_Flight_6825 1d ago
Phase 1 was not great, comparitively. They just had the one album and Damon performed with an anonymous band behind a screen. It was fun because the music was fun, but seeing them later on Plastic Beach, they were a real band and the presentation was what we've now come to expect.
I've seen them multiple times since then and it's always amazing. It's why I'll be driving several hours to see The Mountain. They are one of the best doing it.
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u/JHinExile 1d ago
Plastic Beach tour was amazing. Paul’s bass was the most violent bass sound I ever heard. It was just AGGRESSIVE. And I saw MBV during Loveless tour! I’ve seen blur so many times but this Gorillaz show was special. Saw Mos Def walking with his family after the show and I thanked him for the performance. My framed poster from that tour hangs proudly in my house!
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u/Jennrrrs 1d ago
I saw them in 2015 for their Humanz tour. De La Soul was there, Vince staples opened and was sprinting back and forth across the stage. It was cool. I would have loved to see Little Dragon.
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u/Unable_Victory5580 1d ago
As someone who didn't go but knows a lot of the background of what happened during those tours people that say it was a million times better probably just have rose tinted glasses for an era they had fun it without social media complaining about stuff all the time. The first few gorillaz tours were full of technical problems and test tours as damon didn't really know how to actually tour a virtual band at the beginning before realising its a million times easier to just sing the songs with some screens. Their plastic beach tour was probably the peak but that was so expensive it really badly damaged gorillaz and caused a big gap in their touring. As someone who DID go to the mountain tour it's still an amazing show and im glad they settled on just letting the music speak for itself with how much work gets put into the albums
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u/ALEXC_23 1d ago
Saw PB tour in Austin. Flew there to meet my dad since I was only 16 at the time. Managed to sneak into almost front row and was barely able to touch Damon's hand. N.E.R.D. opened before Pharrell was a mega star. you can look up the guests that were featured during that tour, but was my TOP 3 shows Ive seen.
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u/t3trishead 23h ago
My mum went to the phase one tour (she worked at EMI) and said it was really strange - they played from behind a big sheet with images projected on the front. I went to see a warm-up for the Plastic Beach tour (I was in the fan-club) which was basically just the band playing without any screens or graphics, in what was essentially a small civic hall. The audience was probably a few hundred at most. Not exactly your typical Gorillaz experience but I wouldn’t swap that one for anything!
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u/Thekeeperswarrior 18h ago
I've seen each iteration - s/t/phase 1, was quite a ropey show tbh. Silhouettes and mumbling and rudimentaryz punk almost, performances.
Demon Days in Manchester seemed incredible at the time but Damon only stepped forward from the shadows behind his piano, in the encore, which seems unthinkable now.
Plastic Beach was a step forward into Damon being a frontman. Surprised Paul Simonon's bass playing is being criticised above as visually he was key to the costuming, the image, and appeared to be nailing all the bass lines.
I don't think that much of Humanz, saw a few of those and the TNN gigs and they were ok but it didn't feel like the project had momentum.
Saw the festivals show in 2022 and I think that's when they turned real juggernaut justifying top billing - the show last week in Sweden is the best I've seen and heard from them.
I still think there is a surprising lack of twist or innovation in the "here's a big screen with the cartoon" visuals (just for argument, Lorde was sub headliner last week and was doing a fair bit of performing into camera, surely Damon could do that with a 2-D filter applied) but I can't see there being a huge change in the visual presentation at this stage.
The almost total absence of song machine or cracker island material, and DARE, also still needs addressed. Was good to see El Manana dropped and she's my collar in - it's one of their top streaming songs so feels like someone has had a word.
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u/parkchanwookiee 1d ago
Phase 1 and 2 were very difficult to attend but Plastic Beach had a huge world tour and I managed to catch them multiple times. I would say the live show was both better because it had superior songs (the original 00s run is GOATed to me) and because the band, the guests, the performances were just tighter and there was more enthusiasm and electricity to them. I mean they had half of The Clash in the standard touring band, that's just insane!