Gorillaz’ Damascus Show Streaming Free at NPR

And you thought the Middle East was just about guns and jihad... Concert was performed earlier this week by the ‘toon'd in superstars.

By Blurt Staff

Last Sunday, July 25, Damon Albarn's Gorillaz project gave a special performance in the Syrian capital of Damascus. NPR Music documented this historic spectacle that took place within a 1,000-year-old walled palace through a specially edited version of the show now streaming at the NPR site.

In an introduction taped just for NPR Music, animated Gorillaz bassist Murdoc Niccals (in his rambling fashion) thanks the NPR audience for naming their album the best of the year so far and eventually also goes on to call their trip to the Middle East "the pinnacle of our exploits so far."

Murdoc certainly isn't joking about that, as joining him (well, as much as he can really be there) and Brit-pop icon Albarn onstage for the occasion are Syria's National Orchestra and an all-star cast of musicians, including Bobby Womack, De La Soul, Paul Simonon and Mick Jones of the Clash, and Syrian rapper Eslam Jawaad (the latter gets an immense crowd reaction by rapping a verse of the hit "Clint Eastwood" in Arabic).