Albarn's Blurred Messages Fill a Sold-Out 9:30
Photos by Kyle Gustafson for Express
FOR SOMEONE who just last week challenged his longtime Oasis arch-nemesis Noel Gallagher to campaign for Greenpeace against nuclear weapons, you might have expected Damon Albarn's sold-out performance last night at the 9:30 Club to be filled with overt political messages challenging his Washington audience to ratchet up the pressure on the power that resides here. After all, "The Good, the Bad & the Queen" — the Blur frontman's latest side project — has been criticized for laying "it on a bit thick about Iraq," the Guardian wrote in January. "Albarn links it to everything from global warming to binge-drinking ..."
But just as thousands of anti-war protesters plan to converge on the Pentagon for what's supposed to be a massive showing of anti-Iraq war might this weekend, Albarn, not totally unexpectedly, did not engage the audience much about current affairs. He was quite content performing in his own echo chamber.
And perhaps that was the point anyway. His focus was on the clear and decisive delivery of the album's heavy and sometimes haunting lyrics. But it seemed as if he didn't care all that much if those messages embedded in the well-constructed (but not overly exciting) album resonated with the audience. In fact, he pointed his finger at the crowd on numerous occasions, as if he was sternly lecturing inattentive children. But his children were listening to the crew's eerie and mystical rock, which is really an odd result considering the varied backgrounds of Albarn's bandmates who are better known for their Afro-pop, punk and hip hop.
But that didn't seem to matter much to the house. Musical royalty was on stage last night at 815 V St. NW.
Albarn was joined by Simon Tong (guitarist for Blur, the Verve and Gorillaz); Tony Allen (drummer from Fela Kuti's Africa 70); and Paul Simonon (bassist for the Clash, shown at right). When some of Simonon's fans, gathered in front of stage left, called out for "Guns of Brixton," the former Clash-man, who at times was smoking a cigarette in our decidedly smoke-free city, smiled, hinting that it might be coming. It never did. C'est la vie.
Technically, "The Good, the Bad & the Queen" is just the name of the album and not Albarn's "collection of individuals," as he termed them to the crowd just before performing "Northern Whale."
Dressed in all black (quite a stark opposite from the all-white treatment from Blur's iconic music video for "The Universal"), Albarn seems much more grown up since his youthful days sparring with Oasis in the 1990s, and much more sinister, especially with his top hat — an accent not seen much in this city since John F. Kennedy's 1961 inauguration.
When he sat behind the piano, at one point using Blur's schizophrenically chaotic "Intermission" to introduce the nostalgic "Green Fields," he was a vivid but confused loveable madman, a performer who rose to prominence in the grand era of Britpop "before" — to borrow lyrics from "Green Fields" — "the war and tidal wave engulfed us all."
Maybe it's unreasonable to expect Albarn to get up on his soapbox to chastise us for ignoring humanity's ills, especially when it comes to our current geopolitical discord. Last year, he slammed Radiohead, best known in recent years for "Hail to the Thief" and its vocal anti-war sentiments:
... [B]ands who care about certain things and then go on one-and-a-half-year stadium tours are just total hypocrites. In one sense you've got this developing humanist thing that's coming out of you, which is great. Then you're creating these massive impersonal events where you set up as the subject of thousands of people's adoration. Where is the humanity in that? That's just idolatory.So "The Good, the Bad & the Queen" is indeed a concept album for Albarn. What that concept is exactly, we'll never know for sure. Albarn might not either, but he's certainly playing off the personality cult that follows him, even if he has little to say to them.
» "Noel Gallagher Challenged By Albarn Over Greenpeace" [Female First]
» "Review: The Good, the Bad & the Queen" [Guardian]
» "Major Alert About the March on the Pentagon" [ANSWER]
» "The Universal" [Blur/YouTube]
» "Damon Albarn Lambasts Radiohead" [Gigwise]
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Addison Road
I think you're showing a strange chip on your shoulder in the hopes of sounding like some self-important rock journalist. It was an amazing concert, though.
By mike , Posted March 18, 2007 12:20 AM