Fresh off his headlining gigs at Governor’s Ball and Irving Plaza, high-brow Brit rocker Damon Albarn brought his new solo project to the Royale on Monday night. The new solo record Everyday Robots is Albarn’s first and probably most introspective work to date. It’s not the indie Britpop rock that was Blur, or the virtual dance music that was Gorillaz, but the first two cuts off the record, “Everyday Robots” and “Lonely Press Play” garnered attention upon their release this spring for lyrics and videos that actually convey something meaningful about the self-involved, high-tech culture we live in. I tend to admire anyone that attempts to write something meaningful about the world these days so these songs, and the psychedelic videos that came with them, brought Albarn’s body of work and this show to my attention.

A Monday night crowd can tough to win over, but rock music doesn’t know the difference, right? Not quite. Everyday Robots is downbeat and melancholic, so I was prepared for a slower set, but not one this long. The theatre/club was three quarters full and Albarn had some sort of Pagan star hoisted above as the only stage prop along with a standard lighting rig. Perhaps the pagan symbol represented the darker more ominous sound captured on the record, or maybe he would sacrifice a lamb and feed it us?

He opened the night with the first two cuts mentioned above. Albarn and his four-piece band nailed both of them. They both had funkier, more R&B feel than they do on the record. Then Albarn broke out his melodica for Tomorrow Comes Today (Gorillaz) and I thought we were going to have this funky groove vibe for the duration of the night. I thought wrong. I’m not a dedicated Gorillaz fan, I could recognize the patented sound at the beginning but later on could not decipher the Blur/Gorillaz material from the Everyday Robots stuff which made for a long and tired night.

I found myself wondering: why do some British rockers’ accents go away when they sing and some like Albarn’s stay strong and true? Also, why would he open up with the two singles? What could he possibly have in store for us? Those were just some weird things I was thinking about, and thinking about weird things and life is what this crowd seemed to be doing throughout the night, and not much else. The set was cloudy, dreamy, acid bedtime music interrupted only by a few sprinkles of high energetic songs. Albarn self-proclaimed his new record as downbeat and that he would treat us to a mix or “Blur, Gorillaz, and The Good the Band and the Queen” songs which he did but they weren’t anything special.

Despite the career spanning set, it was okay that this was on a Monday because it was not a Friday night get-you moving type of show. I know this man has paid his dues and has unbelievable song-writing and production credits, but he could have got right into things a little bit quicker.

The set was close to two hours; a half an hour too long if you ask me. His band The Heavy Seas was really tight, well-rehearsed and versatile. The captured what Albarn was going for, but also mixed in influences of punk, reggae, and R&B which brightened up the songs as much as they could be. If only they branched out beyond the studio versions a bit more they could have built some suspense and maybe cut three of them this show would have moved along a lot better.

I have to admit I lost patience with Albarn a few times during the set, especially when he sat down to play some dreamy solo acoustic song. I find it a little arrogant when a musician tries to micro-manage the concert setting and insulting to sit down in front of people who are standing, only to stand up and douse them with water and jump around and demand energy from them 10 minutes later. Albarn also comes off a little bit pretentious. This may work in London or New York City, but a Brit in Boston is going to have to work a little bit harder to win me over from swaying to jumping in such a short time span. Then he actually insulted Boston at one point. Fuck this dude. I couldn’t help but think how pissed I would have been if he emptied a water bottle on me after he did it for like a 5th time. Doesn’t he know an entire war was started here over tea and snowballs?

Thank god the encore was redeeming and almost completely incoherent with the rest of the night. He brought out a choir that he seemingly “picked up” or “paid” at SXSW in Austin earlier this year. They added a great gospel vibe to some of the more emotional and climatic songs off the record. Mr. Tambo has almost a Paul Simon feel to it, was upbeat and should I say it? Fun? Heavy Seas of Love was definitely the best song of the night. It opens like an Elton John classic but took on a rootsy Sunday Mass vibe towards the end that culminated with an interplay between the audience and the choir. As mentioned there were some Blur and Gorillaz songs played earlier in the night, but he closed the evening with what is now an arena rock anthem “Song 2” which immediately brought me back to middle school and brought the crowd to such a loud level that much of the song was drowned out along with distortion and bass.

The problem with this show was that Albarn never really captured the audience until the very end. The setlist was too long and slow even with the older material mixed in. The aesthetics of Royale as a club, not a music venue didn’t help either. It sort of felt like everyone was waiting for “Clint Eastwood” or “Feel Good Inc.” the whole night and they never came. Instead he broke out Song 2 for the first time with this solo project and everyone went bananas but honestly it was too little too late at that point for me, this dude put me to sleep.