The Hollywood Palladium is a legendary concert venue on Sunset Boulevard, around since the 1940s. Although not located on the part of the Sunset Strip known mostly for rock ‘n’ roll excess and debauchery, it has its own iconic history. Everyone you can think of has played there, from the Grateful Dead to Led Zeppelin to The Rolling Stones, Pixies, Turnstile, IDLES, Beastie Boys, Jimi Hendrix, Nine Inch Nails…
It’s one of my favorite Los Angeles venues, and playing The Palladium makes an artist part of a pretty impressive collective history. Selling out a few nights is something to be proud of.
On February 23rd, Gorillaz returned to the Hollywood Palladium for the second of two sold-out performances to celebrate their new album, The Mountain, by performing it in full. The show felt both tightly controlled and, in a way, loose. The venue is mid-size capacity; I’ve always appreciated the intimacy of it, but it’s not so small that you think the room will lack impact. It was a packed house for Gorillaz, and yet there was a sense that everyone would make room for each other.
Damon Albarn entered without ceremony — no theatrical pause, no elongated build. Dressed head to toe in camouflage with his sunglasses on (those barely came off), he immediately and effortlessly took command of the room. He comes across very comfortable in his skin, that one. That has always been his strength. He has always done as he would do wherever life finds him. He’s just Damon. There were times during the show he seemed so carefree and relaxed that I thought maybe he felt he was at home in his living room or in his backyard just having a pleasant day.
In fact, I’ve never attended a show at The Palladium where it felt like we were all so zen that we might possibly be about to sit down in a circle and meditate together. During opening song “The Mountain,” it felt very transcendental, the audience fully captivated and centered.
Gorillaz, photo by Pooneh Ghana
It’s tricky when a band plays a new album from front to back before fans have had a chance to hear what they’ve been up to. But not on this night. The fresh visuals were thoughtful in the way they suggested where this new chapter of Gorillaz is going. During “Happy Dictator,” lyrics flashed on the screen and encouraged a collective chanting of “Oh what a happy land we live in!” Everyone was dancing and screaming the words.
I am lucky enough to have had the opportunity to spend a lot of time with The Mountain ahead of its February 27th release, and I can confidently confirm that the journey meant to be experienced through this album — which is life, death, what is in between, and what might come after — came through.
The stage design was minimal compared to past Gorillaz shows. It wasn’t a big arena or festival production, but it did set the space. The focus stayed on the live band and the screen visuals that have always been central to the Gorillaz universe. The animated members flickered across the backdrop in bursts, getting a reaction from the crowd every time they did. It’s like seeing your most fun friends, the ones you might get into a little good trouble with.
Gorillaz can make everything seem animated in more ways than one, and there were plenty of moments of pure joy in the room that night. Albarn was loose and seemed really amused, casually walking around the stage doing his little dance and grinning like he knew about some secret mischief. Maybe the smile was just because a lot of his friends were there. Maybe it was a pre-show Negroni or two.
The live ensemble sounded tight and filled every corner of the venue. Gorillaz has always functioned as a collective more than a traditional band, and the rotating cast of musicians has often defined the tone of each tour. The way they all bring the best out of each is something to be revered. At The Palladium, the rhythm section was especially locked in. The horn accents and backing vocals were a conversation piece, as I could hear fans around me murmuring about them all night.
Gorillaz, photo by Pooneh Ghana
Then there was the typically phenomenal guest list. During “The Mountain,” the face of the late Dennis Hopper was even artfully projected on the screen. Of course, his wasn’t the only appearance: Asha Puthli and Black Thought (“The Moon Cave”), Sparks (“The Happy Dictator”), Kara Jackson (“Orange County” and “The Sweet Prince”), and IDLES’ Joe Talbot (for whom the room erupted as he came out for “The God of Lying”) all helped bring The Mountain to the stage. The encore saw Del the Funky Homosapien join for “Rock the House” and closer “Clint Eastwood,” Bootie Brown perform “Dirty Harry,” and the room completely tip over when De La Soul’s Posdnuos showed up for “Feel Good Inc.”
The crowd skewed cross-generational. There were longtime fans who’d followed Gorillaz since the early 2000s, younger fans who discovered them through streaming playlists or social media, and I even saw a lot of single parents with their little kids, most 10 or under. That alone gave me hope for the future generation. Everyone was engaged, the lobby left empty as everyone was in the room where the magic happens. At one point toward the end, the crowd was cheering so loudly that Albarn, in all his cheeky British glory, walked up to the mic and jokingly said, “Oh shut up!” with a big, all-knowing grin on his face.
Gorillaz remains a project that could easily rely on its visual identity and early-2000s mythology (Editor’s Note: Including having the fourth Best Album and second Best Song of 2001). Instead, the February 23rd performance at the Hollywood Palladium underscored something more grounded: a live band that still sounds invested, still inventive, and still understands how to make a room feel charged without overselling it.
The Mountain is meant to be listened to from beginning to end. When I interviewed Albarn and Gorillaz artist Jamie Hewlett earlier this year (stay tuned for that), they pointed out that they want people to get off their phones and shut out the noise of the news cycle and daily life, just sit back and listen to the album, an album that is highly personal to them both. For the most part, they were able to accomplish that in a live setting as well. I can speak for more than myself when I say that on Monday night, we were with them on the entire journey up The Mountain, as they intended.
For a group born as a cartoon, the most special part of the night was how human it felt. It felt good. No one wanted the show to be over. But it was Monday, and it was a school night, after all. As the Gorillaz say on the new record, “You know the hardest thing is to say goodbye to someone you love.”
