King Gizzard – 7th Level Music

Live: King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard – Huntington Bank Pavilion – Chicago, IL – September 01, 2024

I hadn’t seen King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard in concert for a few years, and I’d never seen one of their three-hour marathon shows, so I jumped on a ticket for this one as soon as they went on sale late last year. That was a wise decision, because it was a sell-out of tens of thousands of Gizz fans. The line to get into the venue went all the way back to the lawn beyond the amphitheater and then doubled back upon itself.

Yes, that guy in the bottom right corner is wearing a Chicago Bears-style “Cocaine Bear” hat.

The line was mostly policed by the fans. There was no one of this far end telling people to turn around and head back for the main gate. Gizz-heads are always a happy bunch, so this camaraderie is par for the course.

As a result of the long line for entry, and the long line for merch, I missed most of the opening set by Geese, who sounded loud and somewhat prog-rock-ish from what I could hear.

The crowd was enjoying the late summer sun mixed with (finally) cooler weather, and KGATLW made sure to keep everyone on good terms by putting up this message.

They came out and fired up that pit right away with a set of tracks from Nonagon Infinity, beginning with “Robot Stomp” and then moving onto “People Vultures” and “Big Fig Wasp.”

Of course, they played some tracks from their new album, Flight b741. In fact, they played the last three tracks, “Sad Pilot,” “Rats in the Sky,” and “Daily Blues” in a row.

“You Can Be Your Silhouette” was a nice touch, and “Iron Lung” was a big crowd favorite. “Crumbling Castle” was around the halfway point of the show. The sun had set, and the wind coming off Lake Michigan was cooling off anyone not in the mosh pit by then.

So, to warm everyone, they unleashed “Hell,” “Predator X,” “Dragon,” and “Flamethrower,” igniting the mosh pit once again.

After that was an extended set of tracks from Murder of the Universe that included “Welcome to an Altered Future,” which they hadn’t played in about six years, and a wild version of “Vomit Coffin.”

Then, to mix it up further, they did a synth-jam (with four members surrounding a table covered in synthesizers, arpeggiators, sequencers, and digital audio workstations) that was supposed to close out the show.

However, they were told they had more time, so they ended with a great version of “Head On / Pill,” which delighted me since it’s from my favorite album of theirs (Float Along, Fill Your Lungs).

This show was like seeing old friends again. I’ve been a fan of theirs since 2014 when I saw them first play in the United States, and I love seeing their success and the massive fan base they’ve built. Long live King Gizz.

Keep your mind open.

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Rewind Review: King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard – Live at Levitation ’14 (2021)

Praise be to the Reverberation Appreciation Society for releasing this early live gem from Australian psych-rock giants King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard. Live at Levitation ’14 is, I think, a recording of their first live performance in the United States. It was at that year’s Austin Psych Fest in Austin, Texas…and my late wife and I were there.

We didn’t know much about KGATLW then. Heck, no one in the U.S. did. They played an afternoon slot on the main stage, and there were maybe 125 people there for the set. I’d only heard a couple tracks that I’d found on obscure YouTube channels. Those tracks were intriguing enough for me to add them to my wish list of bands to see that year. I thought it would be an interesting set at least.

It certainly was. My thought about halfway through the set was, “Wow…These guys came to play.” Starting with “I’m in Your Mind,” the band launches off the stage right away with fun energy that would come to define their sets. They flow right into, of course, “I’m Not in Your Mind,” showing early signs of the linked “Gizzverse” stuff that would span across multiple albums.

They’re going nuts by the time they get to “Cellophane,” and stunning the crowd by this point. They then loop back to “I’m in Your Mind Fuzz,” and had attracted the other half of their set’s crowd by now because the amount of sound and energy they were putting out was immense. They didn’t stop for a breath until this track ends. “The Wholly Ghost” has a fun metal stomp to it and threatens to fry your brain altogether.

“We’re going to Dallas tomorrow. What’s that like?” Stu Mackenzie asks before the lovely, trippy “Sleepwalker.” “Bloody hot,” someone replies. The whole set is as hot as Texas heat. “Am I in Heaven” has the band starting mellow and then kicking in doors and knocking down tables on a stage in a western town. Call the festival attendees, there were madmen around that afternoon – judging from the chaotic energy KGATLW were broadcasting.

“We’re gonna play one more,” Mackenzie says. That one is the epic “Head On / Pill,” which is over sixteen minutes of psychedelia that will make your mind feel like the album’s cover image. It was a stunning end to a stunning set that left people elated and dumbfounded. They weren’t sure what they’d just seen and heard, but knew they’d been part of something special.

It was a great set, and still sounds great ten years later. It’s essential if you’re a King Gizz fan.

Keep your mind open.

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Review: King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard – The Silver Cord

One of the best things about King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard is that you never know what you’re going to get from album to album with them. It could be alt-folk, a psychedelic freakout, microtonal shredding, thrash metal, or, in the case of The Silver Cord – an album of synth music.

The album has the band diving headlong into their not-so-secret love of synthwave, EDM, rap, and krautrock, starting with the uplifting “Theia” – a song about how we are drifting on silver cords that attach us to ethereal planes we can’t describe but sometimes catch glimpses of now and then. It’s instantly catchy and uplifting, with all the synths and electronic beats rising us up to the natural follow-up of the title track – a beautiful track about birth, death, and rebirth. “Set” is about the wicked Egyptian god (and Egyptology and mythology is all over this record, which delights me to no end) and has a cool rave beat throughout it.

“Chang’e” has the band singing about a goddess of dreams and builds from almost an ambient track into a full-blown dance cut in perhaps the loveliest moment on the record. “Gilgamesh” brings techno-Viking beats to the classic tale of the eternal hero. “Swan Song” uses industrial beats to encourage us to cut the cords that bind us to our attachments and egos and “Go explore. Be untethered. Be unequalled. Grab the sword. Be emperor. Be yourself. Be an orb. Be your spirit. Don’t fear it.”

The closing track, “Extinction,” tackles one of KGATLW’s favorite topics – the destruction of the Earth by mankind’s idiocy and greed. There are hints of “Crumbling Castle” in the beats and lyrics (“Castles crumble with a groan.”) as well. The album ends on an encouraging note, however, as they sing, “I can see everything. I can be in the music.”

So can all of us.

As if The Silver Cord isn’t good enough, and a cool enough project from KGATLW, the band also released an extended version of the record in which they explore long-form synth-jams and add further lyrics to delve further into the album’s themes of death, reincarnation, the afterlife, and enlightenment. The shortest track on the extended version is the ten-minute and eighteen-second-long version of “Set.” The longest is the extended mix of “Theia,” which is just over twenty minutes. All the extended mixes are excellent, and some could be dropped into a DJ set without trouble.

This makes the second excellent album KGATLW have released this year, the first being the epic thrash metal album PetroDragonic Apocalypse: or, Dawn of Eternal Night: An Annihilation of Planet Earth and the Beginning of Merciless Damnation. To go from that to The Silver Cord is a stunning accomplishment that few other bands could pull off and make look easy.

Keep your mind open.

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[Thanks to Jacob at Pitch Perfect PR.]

Review: King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard – Changes

The story behind King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard‘s October 2022 album, Changes, is a bit of an odd one, but which King Gizz album doesn’t have an odd story behind it?

Changes was recorded over five years in various studios, houses, and other places, and it was supposed to be the last album of their 2017 project to release five albums in one year. However, the songs they’d crafted so far didn’t fit in with the project they had in mind, and the last album they put out in 2017 ended up being Gumboot Soup.

They never abandoned Changes, however, and kept coming back to it as something they felt they had to finish. The album is built around the concept that every song on the album is changing key practically all the time. The band kept tinkering with the record until they felt they had it right and finally released it just in time for Halloween last year.

The thirteen-minute, three-second opener, “Change,” is the record’s diving board, plunging you into this weird, constantly shifting world. Change is the only constant, after all. The song is a lovely, floating bit of psychedelia that carries you along a winding river which might not end until you’re in the ocean, but that’s okay with you as you’re okay with whatever life rolls at you by this point.

The bouncy keyboards of “Hate Dancin'” are a funny contrast to Stu Mackenzie‘s lyrics about how much he hates dancing, because the song is highly danceable. Cookie Craig‘s funky bass on “Astroturf” will perk up your ears. The guitar on “No Body” sounds like wax melting down the side of a candle.

“Gondii” dives into the band’s love of electronica with its synth-beats and 16-bit video game rhythms. “Can’t get a message to my brain. I can’t control myself,” Mackenzie sings as electro-hi-hats sizzle around him. I think that lack of control is meant for the dance floor. You’d think a song titled “Exploding Suns” would be some thrash metal track on one of their albums like Infest the Rats’ Nest, but instead it’s a mellow track best suited for meditation and zoning out with a pair of headphones and warm tea (which means it’s lovely). The album ends with “Short Change,” a nearly instrumental that runs through the constant key changes throughout the album, reminding us that change is ever-flowing and something to float along with rather than fear.

Don’t fear this album either. It’s not a bad place to start if you’re new to the Gizzverse.

Keep your mind open.

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[Thanks to Jacob at Pitch Perfect PR.]

King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard announce North American marathon shows for 2024.

The inimitable King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard announce their first 2024 North American tour dates, all 3-hour marathon sets. Following the release of PetroDragonic Apocalypse — their latest album and “end times thrash metal concept album” (The Needle Drop) — as well as this year’s recently-wrapped sold-out residency tour, King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard’s newly announced dates will bring their acclaimed marathon sets back to North America, including stops in New York, Chicago, Austin, TX and Quincy, WA at the legendary Gorge Amphitheatre (which, at a capacity of 21,600 tickets, will be the band’s largest headline show to date). General on sale begins today Friday, September 15th at 12pm ET. A full list of dates is below. Tickets will be available at kinggizzardandthelizardwizard.com

KING GIZZARD & THE LIZARD WIZARD TOUR DATES
Sat. Aug. 17, 2024 – Forest Hills, NY @ Forest Hills Stadium
Sun. Sept. 1, 2024 – Chicago, IL @ Huntington Bank Pavilion at Northerly Island
Sat. Sept. 14, 2024 – Quincy, WA @ The Gorge Amphitheatre
Fri. Nov. 15, 2024 – Austin, TX @ Germania Insurance Amphitheater

Keep your mind open.

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[Thanks to Jaycee at Pitch Perfect PR.]

Review: King Gizzard and The Lizard Wizard – PetroDragonic Apocalypse; or, Dawn of Eternal Night: An Annihilation of Planet Earth and the Beginning of Merciless Damnation

First, I think we can all agree that only King Gizzard and The Lizard Wizard could pull off naming an album (their 26th!) PetroDragonic Apocalypse; or, Dawn of Eternal Night: An Annihilation of Planet Earth and the Beginning of Merciless Damnation. They also pulled off making their second excellent thrash metal album about how we’re destroying the planet (with the first being Infest the Rats’ Nest).

“Motor Spirit” is the sound of a pummeling diesel engine on an out-on-control eighteen-wheeler rushing toward you from the top of a mountain that’s been cut in half for strip mining. Lead (and I use that term lightly) singer Stu Mackenzie sounds like he chugged a can of hot motor oil before he laid down the vocal tracks. The percussion during the bridge of this is outstanding, sending the track into stoner metal territory.

They’re “raising hell” on “Supercell,” and the entire album, really. The song runs along the razor’s edge between thrash and industrial. The groove on “Converge” almost hides the amazing double kick-drum work by Michael Cavanagh. He burned a lot of calories on this album. I hope his bandmates kept him well-fed and hydrated.

“Witchcraft” hits hard and, naturally, brings out the spooky atmosphere. It’s also a nice set-up for “Gila Monster” – which has become a popular track at their live shows. I mean, with an entire crowd chanting “Gila! Gila! Gila!”, how could it not become a favorite? Plus, the song is a fun song about a giant gila monster destroying everything in its path and eating people. It’s a blast. “What hath God wrought?” they ask on “Dragon,” in which they unleash hellfire through guitars and, if I hear what I think I’m hearing, Tibetan monk-style throat chants…and then there’s this weird, slow breakdown that’s like a dragon’s tail lazily swaying back and forth over a huge pile of gold…and then the dragon starts to awaken, and it’s hungry, and a bit annoyed at the noise of pesky humans trying again to break into its lair. “Flamethrower” is the sound of that dragon laying waste to everything in sight, which might include your speaker system and / or eardrums…and then it turns into a darkwave track with Mackenzie chanting “Motor spirit” again and again to link the record back to the first song (shades of Nonagon Infinity).

Depending on which version you get, the last track on the record is a spoken-word story about a dragon wreaking vengeance on the world that’s over fourteen minutes long. I’m sure it will inspire hundreds of Dungeons and Dragons campaigns.

I haven’t touched much on the environmental symbolism on this record, which is everywhere – starting with the cover depicting the dragon (Or is it a lizard wizard?) with a wry smirk standing near an industrial facility churning out fiery smoke and toxic waste to pollute everything in sight. A lot of the album’s lyrics are about how we’re slowly cooking ourselves to death in a human-generated hotbox.

It’s another good entry into King Gizz’s discography and, like Infest the Rats’ Nest, one of the best metal albums of the year.

Keep your mind open.

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[Thanks to Jacob at Pitch Perfect PR.]

Review: King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard – Ice, Death, Planets, Lungs, Mushrooms and Lava

You might expect King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard‘s album Ice, Death, Planets, Lungs, Mushrooms and Lava to start out with some sort of massive cosmic metal track when you look at the album’s cover, but KGATLW are well-known for doing the unexpected, so it shouldn’t surprise anyone that the album starts off with a groovy, saxophone-tooting jam track (“Mycelium”) instead.

It’s a big jam album. The whole thing was recorded in a week with almost no planning. The band started each track with a tempo, a title, and a key signature. That’s it. They’d just improvise on those things for a few hours, and then frontman Stuart Mackenzie would later go back and arrange the jams into songs, and the band would write lyrics to fit them. Yeah, it’s nuts, but it’s just the kind of thing KGATLW love to do (and make look easy).

“Ice V” (pronounced “Ice Five”) is one of the best cuts on the record. It’s a snappy psych-funk song about aliens, crop circles, and other cosmic entities that’s helped along by Michael Cavanagh‘s wickedly tight snare hits. The subtle use of Ambrose Kenny-Smith‘s saxophone in the background is another nice touch.

“Magma” dips a bit into the cosmic rock you expect from the album cover, and it also dips into the band’s love of microtonal instrumentation. “Lava”is a psychedelic trip that ripples and flows like its namesake as Mackenzie sings about life and death and what can represent each.

“Hell’s Itch” is the longest track on the album at over thirteen minutes (which can be considered a warm-up for KGATLW by this point in their career). It floats along (and fills your lungs) like a playful butterfly (3000) along some muddy water and each band member gets time to shine. “Iron Lung” sounds like a lost 1970s crime film soundtrack cut with Joey Walker‘s bass work, and then a krautrock jam when the guitar solo blasts through your speakers. “Gilese 710” tackles one of KGATLW’s favorite subjects – the environment (and what we’ve been doing to it for decades). It’s wild, slightly heavy, and seems to be all over the place while actually keeping within a tight structure. Imagine Captain Beefheart started a krautrock band and you’ll get the idea.

It’s an album that shouldn’t work (“Let’s just jam a lot based on a tempo, key, and title, and we’ll figure it out later.”), but it does quite well. The level of talent in KGATLW is baffling, they sell out shows all over the world, and yet so many people say, “Who?” when you mention them. I think they like it that way.

Keep your mind open.

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Top 25 live shows of 2022: #’s 10 – 6

It’s time for the top ten live shows I saw in 2022. These shows were mind-bending in multiple ways.

#10: King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard – Levitation Austin / Stubb’s – October 29th

This was the second of two sold-out shows from KGATLW at Stubb’s. The line to get into this show stretched for almost three blocks. The crowd was fired up and the prolific psych-rock Aussies played everything from thrash metal to electro. It’s amazing that they can keep so many different types of songs in their heads.

#9: A Place to Bury Strangers – Chicago / Empty Bottle – May 30th

It’s always good to see APTBS. Their shows are like endurance workouts that push you into a runner’s high. This was the first time I saw them with the new lineup and they seemed even louder than they’d ever been. The Empty Bottle could barely contain them.

#8: Moon Duo – Levitation Austin / Feels So Good Records – October 30th

This was the loveliest show of the year, and the most hypnotizing. Playing in their “Lightship” projection box stage, Moon Duo would become lost in the light show that beamed from behind them, onto the screen around them, and into the audience. I’m not joking when I tell you it was trance-inducing. You had to be careful not to zone out and fall onto the floor.

#7: Osees – Levitation Austin / Hotel Vegas – October 28th

I’ve never seen Osees put on a bad show, and this one, albeit a shorter set than normal, was another solid performance. It was the second of their four-night residency at Austin’s Hotel Vegas, and the crowd was the perfect size – not so big you couldn’t stretch your arms, and not so small that you felt bad for the band. The weather was also about perfect. All you needed was a light coat, a hat, and a drink and you were ready for the mosh pit.

#6: Slift – Levitation Austin / Elysium – October 27th

This was the best set of the entire Levitation Austin festival last year. It was also the last show of Slift’s U.S. tour, and they unloaded everything they had left in the tank, and then borrowed from the audience’s tank, and then somehow still had enough to leave orbit. I was surprised Elysium was still standing afterwards. It spoiled us a bit for the rest of the weekend, because no one could top it.

Up next, the best five shows I saw last year, which include some legends.

Keep your mind open.

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King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard announce 2023 U.S. residency tour and theatrical release of “Chunky Shrapnel” concert film.

King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard are one of the greatest and most ambitious working rock bands today. This year alone, they’ve released six incredible albums and played sold-out shows all across the world (including three nights at the iconic Red Rocks Amphitheatre and a packed show at New York’s Forest Hills Stadium), earning themselves an insatiable following. Today, they announce a 2023 North American residency tour, which will be their only shows stateside next year, plus cinema screenings of CHUNKY SHRAPNEL, their full-length concert film directed by John Angus Stewart and distributed to cinemas by Abramorama. The band will play three consecutive shows in select cities, and then will cap off with a 3-hour marathon show at Los Angeles’ Hollywood Bowl. As pointed out in their encompassing SPIN feature, it doesn’t matter if the band is playing “in the California desert, an amphitheatre carved into the Rocky Mountains, or a tennis stadium in Queens, the Australian sextet is blowing more minds than ever, one fan at a time.” Tickets are on sale this Friday at 1pm ET.

CHUNKY SHRAPNEL is a feature length live music documentary from King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard, directed by John Angus Stewart. Literally bringing the audience onto the stages of their 2019 tour across Europe and the UK, CHUNKY SHRAPNEL offers a uniquely immersive experience never before captured on film, a musical road movie dipped in turpentine. Screenings will largely take place one night only on December 7th. A full list of cities and dates can be found here.

TOUR DATES (new dates in bold)
Sat. Dec. 10 – St. Kilda, AUS @ The Palace Foreshore
Thu. Dec. 29 – Tauranga, NZ @ Wharepai Domain
Sat. Dec. 31 – Wanaka, NZ @ Rhythm & Alps
Wed. Jan. 4 – Auckland, NZ @ The Matakana Country Park
Fri. Jan. 6 – New Plymouth, NZ @ Bowl of Brooklands
Thu. Mar. 2 – Paris, FR @ Zenith
Fri. Mar. 3 – Amsterdam, NL @ Gashoulder – SOLD OUT
Sat. Mar. 4 – Tilburg, NE @ 013 – SOLD OUT
Mon. Mar. 6 – Malmo, SE @ Plan B – SOLD OUT
Tue. Mar. 7 – Stockholm, SE @ Munchenbryggeriet – SOLD OUT
Wed. Mar. 8 – Oslo, NE @ Sentrum Scene
Thu. Mar. 9 – Copenhagen, DK @ Den Gra Hal
Sat. Mar. 11 – Warsaw, PL @ Progesja – SOLD OUT
Sun. Mar. 12 – Prague, CZ @ Lucerna Velky Sal
Mon. Mar. 13 – Vienna, AT @ Gasometer
Wed. Mar. 15 – Milan, IT @ Alcatraz
Thu. Mar. 16 – Zurich, CH @ X-Tra
Fri. Mar. 17 – Lausanne, CH @ Les Docks
Sat. Mar. 18 – Wiesbaden, DE @ Schlachthof
Mon. Mar. 20 – Brussels, DE @ Cirque Royale – SOLD OUT
Wed. Mar. 22 – London,UK @ Brixton Academy
Thu. Mar. 23 – London, UK @ Brixton Academy
Thu. Mar. 30 – Sydney, AUS @ Big Top Luna Park
Thu. Apr. 6 – Byron Bay, AUS @ Tivoli
Fri. Apr. 7 – Byron Bay, AUS @ Byron Bay Bluesfest
Thu. June 1 – Grundy County, TN @ The Caverns Underground
Fri. June 2 – Grundy County, TN @ The Caverns Underground
Sat. June 3 – Grundy County, TN @ The Caverns Amphitheater
Wed. June 7 – Morrison, CO @ Red Rocks Amphitheatre
Thu. June 8 – Morrison, CO @ Red Rocks Amphitheatre – EARLY SHOW
Thu. June 8 – Morrison, CO @ Red Rocks Amphitheatre – LATE SHOW
Sun. June 11 – Chicago, IL @ The Salt Shed
Mon. June 12 – Chicago, IL @ The Salt Shed
Tue. June 13 – Chicago, IL @ The Salt Shed
Fri. June 16 – Carnation, WA @ Carnation Farms
Sat. June 17 – Carnation, WA @ Carnation Farms
Sun. June 18 – Carnation, WA @ Carnation Farms
Wed. June 21 – Los Angeles, CA @ The Hollywood Bowl – 3 HOUR MARATHON SET

Keep your mind open.

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[Thanks to Jacob at Pitch Perfect PR.]

Review: King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard – Laminated Denim

One of three albums released by King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard in the same month (and four albums released this year), Laminated Denim consists of just two tracks – each fifteen minutes in length. The songs were recorded so they could be played during intermissions of their epic three-hour live sets at the Red Rocks Amphitheatre in Colorado, but they’re not the original tracks made for those sets.

Those tracks were recorded and released on the half-hour, two-track album Made in Timeland released earlier this year. The Made in Timeland tracks were never played during the Red Rocks intermissions because those 2019 shows never happened due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The tracks sat unused for nearly three years before the band, know for their endless energy and prolific output, decided to release Made in Timeland at a three-hour hometown gig.

The problem that then arose was, “What do we play at the upcoming Red Rocks intermissions now?” The answer to that was to record two new long tracks, and thus Laminated Denim (an anagram of “Made in Timeland”) was born.

The first track, “The Land Before Timeland,” gets off to a quiet start that builds into a lengthy jam session of happy guitars over soft jazz drums. Ambrose Kenny-Smith‘s harmonica weaves in and out of the song quite well.

“Hypertension” brings in some of the microtonal elements that KGATLW are known to love. It’s a faster jam that the previous track, probably designed that way to slowly build the audience’s anticipation for what’s to come after intermission.

These two tracks pick you up, carry you away, and let you drift along with them for a nice half-hour jaunt.

Keep your mind open.

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[Thanks to Jacob at Pitch Perfect PR.]