Even for the Gorillaz, a haunted house in the middle of spring seemed like a strange idea.
Turns out the Sonos Gorillaz Spirit House isn’t quite that after all — there’s nothing going bump in the space except you grooving to various Gorillaz tunes.
The pop-up, which made its first stop in Brooklyn this weekend on a national tour, is actually two rooms and a store for event sponsor Sonos’ new Playbase soundsystem.
Guests enter into the living room-kitchen combo from the “Saturnz Barz” music video, with some cool touches like the demon Pazuzu from the “Rockit” video and a cereal collection that may rival yours. Somewhat disappointingly given how cool promotional events have gotten, beyond browsing the collection of Gorillaz cover mags on the coffee table and poking at the fake pizza abandoned in the kitchen, it’s too dark for proper photos and there are no interactive elements in the room.
The second space is a neat glimpse of a living room-meets-dancefloor where you sit on a long sofa as the entire wall in front of you is taken over by a new music video for “Ascension,” enhanced by three projectors and a rhythmic console that lights up with the beat. If they could overproduce all music videos like this, MTV could totally become relevant again.
And that’s it as far as the experience — the final room is an Apple store-style space to sell you on the Playbase system. Attendees also get a free poster-quality print of exclusive art by Jamie Hewlett. But if you’re looking for real spooks, you’ll have to go elsewhere.
