Gorillaz Debut New Song ‘Skinny Ape’ In San Francisco

Gorillaz performed their song “Skinny Ape” for the first time during their concert last night at Chase Center in San Francisco. The new original is part of the group’s upcoming studio album, Cracker Island, which comes out next February.

“This is a new song, inspired in part by one of those wonderful things that have come out of Silicon Valley: the Amazon bot that walks down the road and delivers things,” frontman Damon Albarn told the Chase Center crowd prior to the “Skinny Ape” premiere. “It’s something which we haven’t got in my little island far away – yet. I saw it first in Los Angeles and it inspired me to pen this tune.”

Watch Gorillaz debut the new song “Skinny Ape” below:

Wednesday’s setlist also saw the band play the Cracker Island title track and fellow album cut, “New Gold,” the latter kicking off the encore with regular tour guest Bootie Brown, who also contributed to the album version (along with Tame Impala). Brown stuck around for the subsequent “Stylo” and appeared earlier during the main set, augmenting “Dirty Harry.” Other featured performers included EarthGang on “Opium,” Fatoumata Diawara on “Désolé” and Pos on “Feel Good Inc.”

Longtime Gorillaz collaborator Del the Funky Homosapien emerged during the encore, joining Gorillaz on their first live performance of “Rock The House” since 2002. The sit-in marked the rapper’s first live accompaniment on the song off Gorillaz’s 2001 self-titled debut album. Del remained onstage for the Gorillaz standout “Clint Eastwood” that also featured Sweetie Irie and brought the concert to an end.