Converse and Gorillaz have teamed up for the release of a new song called DoYaThing and an accompanying video to help promote Gorillaz design shoes. The four pairs of shoes are all personally designed by cartoonist extraordinaire and Gorillaz captain, Jamie Helwett. As part of the promotion, a special performance by the Gorillaz Sound System at the 100 Club was put on. The Gorillaz Sound System are a promotional band that play mixes and mashups live by using Gorillaz samples and visuals to create a wondrous dance and club experience.

The only way to get tickets was to apply online and win a spot on the guest list (plus a guest). I did not win, my chum did and he took me along. After some last minute plans and a sprint dash to London we were looking forward to the gig.

This is a short review and for a good reason…

The trio themselves absolutely rocked the place. They moulded songs in introvert and interesting ways. Easy to dance to yet not stale. There were some interesting highlights and mixes. Clint Eastwood became a reggae song, Feel Good Inc had a samba feel. One of the bits that made me chuckle and at the same time struck me in awe was the mix of ‘Doncamatic’ with Michael Jackson’s ‘Don’t Stop Till You Get Enough’.

It was clear that certain sections were broken up into ‘sets’ to perform. The band ended on a dubstep set that descended into a chaos samba with the drummer and percussion making the funkiest rhythm. This part had less Gorillaz tracks weaved in and more slight samples from ‘Last Living Souls’ and ‘Sweepstakes’. I thought this was a missed opportunity as the cry of ‘Sweepstakes’ would have fit perfectly and yet it was not used. I thought the 3rd ‘set’ was over and we’d get some more songs.

Nope, the band gave a quick ‘Goodbye’ and it was over.

My friend and I, as well as a lot of the crowd were left bemused. What we thought was going to be an hour and a half set barely reached 35 minutes and seemed like it was a premature end. We thought they might come back on. They did not. We were a little bit furious.

Thus, short review. Overall 10 Gorillaz tracks were used, maximum. I’m not even sure it was that many. That means I have more fingers on my hands than songs that they used. That should not be the case. From what I remember: Clint Eastwood, Feel Good Inc, Dare, Doncamatic, Sweepstakes, Last Living Souls, On Melancholy Hill, All Alone and I believe that to be all were played.

If the group are to play more gigs and somewhere local and the show will actually be longer then I would probably go see them again. However the swiftness of it and also the lack of special guests (not that we were entitled however at the previous show they played, Damon Albarn, De La Soul, Daley, and Bobby Womack attended) made the overall day disappointing.

However they did play the new song ‘DoYaThing’ and we got to hear that before anyone else. The new song has already been released though since the gig and so has the video which you can watch below. (Personally we are treating this as a Gorillaz video with music playing in the background.)

gorillaz.com

Gorillazsoundsystem.com