Last night, Damon Albarn's cartoon band Gorillaz took Plastic Beach, their most cohesive and best album to date (even without a single as big and defining as "Clint Eastwood"), and exploded it into one of the most ambitious live concert revues I have ever seen. At any given time, underneath a giant video projection screen and light-up letters spelling the band's name, there were a couple dozen musicians onstage (a friend said the onstage total with crew numbered over 100), including an all female string section in nautical attire (a popular look among the audience as well), an all male brass band, a Syrian string and percussion ensemble, four back-up singers, two drummers, two keyboardists, and the Clash's Mick Jones and Paul Simonon on guitar and bass. Guests included Bobby Womack, De La Soul, Little Dragon's Yukimi Nagano, Kano, Bashy, and Bootie Brown. For a cartoon band, Gorillaz put a lot of stock in bringing out the real musicians. (Surely they must know this can all be done with computers these days?)

The show began with the computer animated Gorillaz onscreen, trapped backstage in their dressing room, waiting to go on, Murdoc peering so close into the camera that you could see his pores, 2-D goofing around behind him, cyborg Noodle hooked up to some cables and twitching with electricity. The string section played Plastic Beach's "Orchestral Intro" and then the core band (Albarn, back-up vocalists, drums, keys, and guitars) and the horn section took the stage for the sly, funky "Welcome to the World of the Plastic Beach," with Snoop Dogg in purple pirate garb and thoughtfully wielding a gold telescope, rapping his pre-recorded lines from the video screen.

For "Last Living Souls," the video showed what looked like the jeans commercial version of Gerry, just two fit, faceless dudes in nice denim wandering around the desert, while Albarn hopped up on the lip of the stage, struck hammy "feeling it" poses, and belted the song's chorus to the cheap seats. During the smiley, squawking "19-2000," a toddler on her dad's shoulders in the front row handed Albarn a rose, which he accepted with a triumphant little fist pump. The song's music video played in the background, the band cruising an F-Zero-esque endless elevated highway as oil derricks pump gas in the background (MESSAGE!), with Noodle looking noticeably more yellow than she does these days (she's gone, you could say, from egg Noodle to rice Noodle).

Albarn brought out Bootie Brown and "Mr. Bobby Womack" for "Stylo, Brown all sunglasses and Jerri curls, Womack wearing a loose gray striped suit that looked comfy like PJs, and it was sort of surreal listening to Womack's still powerful croak while giant Bruce Willis sneered at you in the music video onscreen. The "Stylo" video, the first from Plastic Beach, sort of sets up the new album's loose cartoon narrative—trouble on the mainland, the band escaping to sea, gas-masked grim reaper figure hovering about—and they followed it with the two songs whose videos continue the plot, "Melancholy Hill" and "Rhinestone Eyes." "Melancholy Hill" is maybe the sweetest single on the album, and I was ever so slightly bummed that the album version's crystal clear melody sounded a little blurry (as in muddled, not as in Blur-y, although maybe that too) live last night—that said, it was about the only moment that sounded even a little bit off all night.

Plugs 1 and 2 of De La Soul came out for their cut on the new album, "Superfast Jellyfish," delivering their Saturday morning cartoon commercial raps with relish as the video screen played a montage of snack shack signage overhead. They played early single "Tomorrow Never Knows," that initial offering sounding way more like a natural offshoot of late Blur than the project would prove to be; they played the wisftul "Empire Ants," Albarn taking a seat at a keyboard, Little Dragon's Nagano singing the lead while wearing a silver sequined jacked and a tiara. The video screen cut back to the animated band backstage, with Murdoc moaning, "how much longer is this warm-up band gonna hog the stage for?! ...some sort of tribute band."

Albarn sang "Broken," a slow, sad one off the new album, and then the band played "Dirty Harry," Albarn just joining the chorus of back-up singers on the side of the stage (so modest!), Bootie Brown coming back out for the song's rap. They played "El Manana," all breezy but deflating. Albarn kept the between song banter at an absolute minimum, but here he muttered a few words: "this...this...you know Seattle...is a little bit like England...until the clouds clear, and the mountains, and then it's not like England." He went on to shout-out Slave to the Needle Tattoos for "their fantastic tattoos," and introduce and say some kind words about the Syrian band that had been touring with them. That band supplied the intro and outro for "White Flag," Brit rappers Kano and Bashy traded the verses, and Albarn waved a giant white flag over the front rows. He mumbled an introduction for Nagano, who came back out for "To Binge." They did "Dare," Shaun Ryder's disembodied head singing from the music video. Albarn ducked offstage while the band did "Glitter Freeze," their own "Rock'n'Roll Part 3" (even says "Glitter" in the title) fitting in perfectly in the sports arena, Fall man Mark E. Smith's voice echoing from nowhere. They did some fast, punky rave-up I didn't recognize, but which sounded rather a lot like "Bank Holiday." They closed the set with the chintzy "Casio" chants of "Plastic Beach."

Bobby Womack began the encore with the mournful "Cloud of Unknowing," which he sang seated on a stool, possibly while reading from a teleprompter. "You know, I've written a lot of sings in my life and times when Damon came and asked me to sing this one," he said by way of introduction. He did a little arm-flapping move when he sang the word "wings." Next, Albarn directed the crowd to chant "Maceo," "because sometimes this individual doesn't show up." All of De La successfully summoned, they barreled through "Feel Good Inc.," and the band and guests all looked like they were really having a good time—Mick Jones did a little shuffling dance that elicited a chuckle from one of the Plugs, Albarn and Maceo playfully mean mugged each other, freezing in b-boy stances. They played "Clint Eastwood," the early animation looking like first season Simpsons or the Flintstones compared to the computer animations that book-ended the show. About which: after the denouements of 'Don't Get Lost in Heaven" and "Demon Days," the show ended with the cartoon band onscreen finally breaking out of their dressing room to take the stage. 3-D/hologram technology willing, maybe someday. For now, though, you couldn't hope for a better spectacle than what Gorillaz's flesh and blood band put on last night.