Gorillaz, De La Soul, LittleDragon @ The Rod Laver Arena,Melbourne (11/12/2010)

Mon 13th Dec, 2010 in Gig Reviews

Little Dragon open the night up early, at 7.30pm, as punters are still trickling in to Rod Laver. Seemingly dwarfed by the arena, the tiny Yukimi Nagano sings with a gusto that belies her size, coming off like a more grounded Bjork with her endearing vocal quality and cute dancing. Songs like Never Never and Runabout receive an affable response from the still gathering audience whilst Feather exemplifies the Swedish band’s patent blend of electronic pop, with its upbeat 80s mix of synths and electronic and kit drums.

By the time De La Soul take the stage, the venue is approaching capacity. The classic hip-hop trio still dominate when it comes to getting a crowd pumped up, demanding that the entire venue stand and bounce. Oooh sees Maseo come out from behind the decks to get the audience chanting the titular line. He outshines his cohorts too, dancing around limberly, rubbing his belly and displaying a general humour, making sure no one is taking themselves too seriously. Getting an awkward teen on stage, who they claim isn’t partying hard enough, leads to his hilarious attempt to get Melbourne to say, “Oohh.” The highlight of the set has to be the classic Ring Ring Ring though, with its catch cry of, “Hay, how you doin, sorry you can’t get through, why don’t you leave your name and your number, and I’ll get back to you.”

The absolute spectacle of the Gorillaz leaves it in no doubt that those that criticised the Glastonbury performance saw a very different show. Opening with an Orchestral Intro before Snoop Dog leads Welcome To The Plastic Beach via telepresence, the scale of Damon Albarn and Jamie Hewlett’s machine seems to be ever increasing. From here, Albarn steps to the fore on Last Living Souls relieving fears that only new album material would be played.

For the rest of the show he remains a commanding presence and it is never in any doubt who’s steering this ship. That is not to say he is some sort of dictator, as he often steps back to allow a varied line-up of guests, including Bobby Womack (in a stunning grey stripped suit) on Stylo, De La Soul on Superfast Jelly Fish and Little Dragon on Empire Ants and To Binge as well as a Syrian Orchestra on White Flag.

Albarn is a dynamic presence, throwing himself violently around stage during the aptly named Punk; he is at once a virtuoso frontman and conductor of this mad orchestra. Hewlett’s contribution can’t be overstated either, with an amassed cinematic horde of imagery that varies from live action, hand drawn and CG animation, to stills, playing out overhead, driving and complimenting the moods of the musicians below. No where is the combination more potent than the darkly garage driven sounds of Tomorrow Comes Today. The huge band, including Mick Jones and Paul Simonon of the Clash, full brass and string sections, a chorus line, not to mention the extended list of guest vocalists and rappers, allow almost note for note interpretations of Albarn’s eclectic album work. Dare, Dirty Harry, On Melancholy Hill, 19-2000 and the effervescent sorrow of Broken are all hugely impressive, before closing the set with Plastic Beach and its cries of, “It’s a Casio on a Plastic Beach.”

The band return after a mercifully brief intermission to perform an encore, beginning with the return of Bobby Womack to stage and progressing through the two biggest tracks with De La Soul returning for Feel Good Inc and a freestyle rap replacing Del tha Funkee Homosapien on Clint Eastwood. This last effort doesn’t quiet pull-off the lofty task of filling such domineering shoes, but the song was always going to be a stand-out regardless. The Gorillaz close on the gospel tripping of Don’t Get Lost in Heaven, before exiting the stage to cheers from a crowd that would have been more than happy to support another two encores, but are giddily happy nonetheless.