In a dystopian future, we may be listening on our augmented-reality headsets to a steady diet of artificially designed biometric music. In this scenario (ugh), virtual bands will be as prolific as bacteria.
In 1998 — medieval times, in retrospect — Blur’s Damon Albarn and the artist Jamie Hewlett, who drew the comic book “Tank Girl,” co-conceived Gorillaz, a virtual band represented by four punky avatars who came together like a classic Saturday morning cartoon gang. In real life, Albarn and his ever-expanding roster of collaborators invaded TD Garden Thursday with their latest extravaganza, with the cartoon band appearing onscreen overhead.
“Invaded” is the operative word here: Albarn and many members of his entourage were decked out in camouflage, with the ringleader sporting a military beret. They were prepared for battle.
The battle was not with the very receptive full house, but the forces against human creativity. Gorillaz have yet to meet a musical style they don’t want to annex — funk, trip-hop, Afrobeat, new wave, electro. Their ninth album, “The Mountain,” released earlier this year, dives deep into the mysticism of Indian raga.
The show opened that way, with Indian classical flute player Aya Prasanna sitting at the center of the sprawling band as a “Jungle Book”-style cartoon flickered on multiple screens. The deeply sarcastic “The Happy Dictator” followed: “Oh what a happy land we live in,” the choral refrain claimed.
Albarn then chimed in with his signature sound, the arch, compressed vocal effect he gets from using an old-fashioned citizen’s band radio microphone.
“No more bad news,” he declared. “So you can sleep well at night.”
The show opened nearly two hours earlier with a short but potent set from Deltron 3030. They’re a Bay Area hip-hop trio with close ties to Gorillaz: The keyboardist known as Dan the Automator produced Gorillaz’s debut album, which is celebrating its 25th anniversary this year, and vocalist Del the Funky Homosapien returned to the stage at the end of the evening to rap with Gorillaz on one of the band’s most recognizable songs, “Clint Eastwood.”
Another frequent collaborator, the British rapper Little Simz, led her future-funk band through a half-hour set that included a thrilling nod to the late Nigerian superstar Fela Kuti on “Lion.” Simz, too, returned to accompany Gorillaz midway through their set on “Garage Palace,” a rapid-fire electro track from 2017.
Several times, Albarn stepped down from the stage and waded into the front rows of the crowd, offering hugs and autographs while the band percolated behind him. He played a bit of guitar and led several tunes by blowing on a melodica, the handheld keyboard that gives Gorillaz one of the band’s signature sounds.
“All of us feel blessed to be in America at this time,” Albarn said at one point. (He also noted that the first time he played Boston with his Britpop band Blur, in 1991, police officers escorted him offstage: “I was deemed too inebriated,” he said with a laugh.)
The recent news that Blur’s incorrigible British rivals, Oasis, have sold out three shows at Gillette Stadium that won’t take place until next summer resurrects the 30-year-old debate about which of the two bands won the Britpop “wars.”
When Posdnuos, representing De La Soul, stepped forward to take the rap verses on Gorillaz’s biggest hit, “Feel Good Inc.,” Albarn’s “virtual” band made it clear that it bows to no men.
GORILLAZ
With Deltron 3030 and Little Simz. At TD Garden Thursday.
James Sullivan can be reached at jamesgsullivan@gmail.com.