IDM Mailing Archive

so i saw gorillaz last night at the 930 club in DC. i was utterly blown away. it was the best live show i've seen in a looong time. truly a multimedia masterpiece. the visuals were just amazing. there were at least seven high speed slide projectors and two enormous LCD video projectors. it pretty much put the coldcut show i saw there to shame as far as the visuals were concerned i should point out that i've never heard the gorillaz cd - just the singles on the radio or whaterver - so i went in with a completely open mind. that shit was some tuly body rocking intelligent dance music. the setup was a giant movie screen covering the top half at the front of the stage. beneath that, at band level, was mauslin fabric that was also projected upon. you could see just enough of the band to know people were playing the music, but that was it. beyond that it was all about the visuals and the music. it was so great to see a pop band using this kind of aesthetic - really the "faceless techno" aesthetic i've always loved - to let the music completely speak for itself. to me, this was the best that pop music has to offer. if this is where "rock" is heading, i'd like to see more of it. on the flip though, the cynic in me couldn't help noticing that MTV2 banner hanging in the corner. that got me to thinking that perhaps the whole cartoon thing is really just the perfect corporate branding device. all the kiddies love cartoons. maybe gorillaz will become the joe camel of the pop/rock/rap hybrids? just to end on a positive note - god damn dan the automator is just one wicked freakin producer. he just keeps puttin out the mack shit. ok - enough of my rambling - d