Telling the story of Gorillaz, the animated band created by Blur’s Damon Albarn and British artist Jamie Hewlett, involves a bit of real-world history and a bunch of cartoon mythology. House of Kong manages to blend both of those into a truly transportive walkthrough that mixes an art-on-the-wall gallery show with a cartoon-come-to-life manifestation of one of this century’s most singular bands.
The L.A.-by-way-of-London experience, which sets up in the Arts District’s Rolling Greens from February 26 to March 19, starts outside in front of a hulking statue of Pazuzu, a Mesopotamian demon-god and in-universe motif that’s been plastered with decades-spanning Gorillaz stickers. That’s about the only thing you can photograph until you reach the finish of this largely phone-free experience (the island model from Plastic Beach and a sizable gift shop greet you at the end). From there, you’ll be handed a pair of headphones and embark on a half-hour-plus audio-guided tour.
House of Kong starts like a proper museum show; gallery lighting focuses on prints of early concept art of 2-D, Murdoc, Noodle and Russel before diving into relics that chart the rise of the band (including, ahem, a 2005 Time Out London magazine cover) and its world-building lore. From there, in the classic style of a Disneyland ride preshow, things go awry, and the following five sections (no spoilers) see guests traversing through lovingly cluttered sets just bursting with hazy homages to both the animated characters’ backgrounds and their IRL collaborators.
It’s an expertly assembled experience that’s really brought to life through its tightly choreographed narration and music, though your enjoyment (and willingness to plunk down about $50 on a timed ticket) will surely depend on your level of Gorillaz fandom. As someone who thought the band’s self-titled album was just about the coolest thing on the planet as a preteen (and sunk a ludicrous number of hours into the Geep simulator Flash game) but has tuned out a bit over the past decade, I was still enthralled—at least until my audio fell out of sync about a third of the way through. I was part of the very first non-staff group to visit the exhibition during a morning preview, so I’m willing to forgive the bugs (though it did frustratingly render the final few rooms a little less magical and a little more inert). For the paying public, if you run into any similar issues, flag down a staff member inside and you’ll be allowed to go through the experience again.
A quick note on parking: Rolling Greens is on a more industrial block of the Arts District where parking is limited. You can keep your fingers crossed to find spots in a couple of lots nearby, but if you’d rather skip the hassle, House of Kong does offer a ticket add-on with valet parking ($35).
