OAKLAND, Calif. — Gorillaz were back in the Bay Area on Wednesday night (Oct. 28), performing a generous two-hour show for a completely packed house of some 14,000 fans at the Oakland Arena.

The trek marked the 25 years since the world’s most successful animated band released its landmark self-titled debut in 2001.

Fittingly, some of the biggest cheers went out during a kind of virtual role call early in the night, as these Jamie Hewlett-created cartoon characters — 2-D, Murdoc Niccals, Russel Hobbs and Noodle — were displayed on the big video screens behind and above the stage. Then these characters quickly disappeared from the forefront, and rarely factored into the remainder of the night, leaving the non-virtual performers to carry too much of the weight of this 27-song set.

The result was an occasionally exciting, but ultimately uneven outing for Gorillaz, the alt-rock group that holds the Guinness World Record as the bestselling virtual band of all time — but is letting the flesh-and-blood humans run the show on the Mountain Tour.

It’s a far cry from the group’s debut road show — Gorillaz Live — which hit The Warfield in San Francisco in 2002 and featured the real-life musicians performing behind a screen used to show animation. That earlier trek was also problematic, but in the exact opposite way, as the connection between the artists and the fans was lost to the virtual component.

Truly, Gorillaz face a tough balancing act in trying to get the proper mix of flesh-and-blood and virtual into its live show. The band never seems to get it quite right — and, perhaps, it never will.

One of the biggest problems in Oakland was Damon Albarn, who delivered a night that yet again underscored why it makes so much sense that the singer-songwriter has found even more success with Gorillaz than he did with Blur. Being a front man is just not his real strength, yet he’s able to compensate for that weakness behind a screen of cartoon characters and through the use of a big cast of guest musicians and contributors in Gorillaz. He didn’t have that luxury fronting his old Brit-pop outfit.

Taking the stage at just before 9 p.m., Gorillaz opened the show with the meditative instrumental title track to this year’s “The Mountain,” a concept work addressing life, loss and the afterlife. The large troupe — which included multiple backing vocalists — then moved into “The Happy Dictator” from the new album, which was inspired by the death of the fathers of both Albarn and his Gorillaz co-creator Hewlett (the acclaimed artist known for comic book “Tank Girl”).

Albarn, wearing a red beret, dark glasses and a camouflage jacket, would show his appreciation to (at least some of) the crowd as he soon ventured down to the barricade in front of the stage and begin to shake hands, administer hugs and sign souvenirs. (Don’t be surprised if there is an onslaught of signed Gorillaz merch hitting eBay from 510 sellers.)

He’d first journey down to the barricade during the fourth song of the night, “Last Living Souls,” which would’ve been just fine if it had been a one-time thing. Instead, he kept doing it again and again. That was nice for the, maybe, 100 fans who got the chance to experience the singer up close. But it sure made for some boring theatrics for the other 99.9% of the fans in the house.

Also, Albarn seemed very disengaged with the music while he was greeting these fans, to the point where the great “19-2000” — which should have been a big highlight of the night — pretty much just fizzled out.

He’d do a bit better once he was back on the stage, but his energy level was still off and he got lost in the wild musical mix too often. He mainly just wandered about the crowd, slinging those lo-fi lines through his CB-style mic, occasionally moving over to the piano for a some Coldplay-light moments.

The show improved immensely whenever Albarn turned the spotlight over to one of the guest vocalists, most of whom hailed from the hip-hop realm. The most impressive turn of the night came courtesy of Little Simz, the English rapper who helped open the show and then returned during the main set to bring down the house with a lyrical spin through “Garage Palace.”

The last portion of the show was stellar, as a steady of succession of talented MCs took the mic and shook the arena. There was Del the Funky Homosapien, the Oakland product making a big hometown appearance and delighting fans with “Rock the House,” as well as Pharcyde’s Bootie Brown handling “Dirty Harry” with gusto. And Posdnuos, from De La Soul fame, gave us all a much-needed pep talk about having a positive attitude — and music’s role in promoting that — before performing “Feel Good Inc.”

“We are like superheroes,” Pos said. “We are here to work against bad.”

Gorillaz ended the show in the way we all expected, as Albarn, Del the Funky Homosapien and the rest of the mighty team closed up shop in signature fashion with the debut-album-hit “Clint Eastwood.”

Gorillaz setlist:

1. “The Mountain”

2. “The Happy Dictator”

3. “Tranz”

4. “Last Living Souls”

5. “Tomorrow Comes Today”

6. “19-2000”

7. “Rhinestone Eyes”

8. “On Melancholy Hill”

9. “White Light”

10. “Orange County”

11. “O Green World”

12. “Casablanca”

13. “Delirium”

14. “Andromeda”

15. “Garage Palace”

16. “She’s My Collar”

17. “Souk Eye”

18. “Superfast Jellyfish”

19. “Stylo”

20. “Kids With Guns”

21. “The Sad God”

22. “Cloud of Unknowing”

23. “California and the Slipping of the Sun”

24. “Rock the House”

25. “Dirty Harry”

26. “Feel Good Inc.”

27. “Clint Eastwood”

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