King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard delivered a relentless three-hour marathon of psychedelic brilliance, seamlessly blending genre-defying sounds into an unforgettable live experience.
King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard is an Australian band known for exploring different sub-genres of rock music. The band currently consists of members Stu Mackenzie, Ambrose Kenny-Smith, Cook Craig, Joey Walker, Lucas Harwood, and Michael Cavanagh. Their first few albums were more garage rock, then they progressed into a few psychedelic rock albums, while their album Quarters! incorporates various elements of jazz. In August 2024, King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard released their 29th full-length album, Flight b741.
Opening is the Australian rock band King Stingray. In 2020, the band added its final members and was signed to Bargain Bin Records. Their music draws influence from Yolŋu, a northeastern region in the Northern Territory of Australia. The lyrics of their songs are sung in both English and Yolŋu Matha. They also use unique instruments such as clapsticks and a didgeridoo, which they perform live. Only a few days before their show in Austin, the band released a new album, For The Dreams.
King Stingray opened their set with “Looking Out,” a song from their new album, along with “Best Bits.” Mid-set, they invited Joey Walker, lead guitarist of King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard, onto the stage with them. They performed a cover of Warumpi Band’s “Waru.” After a few more minutes of straight jam session, they closed their set with “Let’s Go,” a track from their debut album.
At 8:30 PM, King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard started their extremely anticipated show with “Head On/Pill,” the opening track from their album Float Along – Fill Your Lungs. As to be expected, all of their songs performed were lengthy shredding sessions, each being longer than five minutes and some lasting up to 15 minutes. Next, they played two songs from their new album, “Field of Vision” and “Antarctica.” Mackenzie and Walker informed fans that they were excited to be back in Austin and that Austin was the first city where they performed a show outside of Australia. In 2014, they played at Austin’s Psych Fest.A few minutes after the two-hour mark, they invited a fan onto stage to sing the intro of “Nuclear Fusion.” With no clear instructions, the eager fan began to sing a different song before Walker stopped him to ask if he knew what he was supposed to do. After understanding the assignment, the audience member gave a barbaric guttural growl of the lyrics, “Nuclear fusion.” The audience gave him an A+ as a wave of exuberance spread across the now-cheering fans.
Mid-set, crew members rolled out a giant synth table that they gathered around to perform their more electronic songs such as “Set” and “Extinction.” Audience members crowd-surfed consistently throughout the night and danced around the back of the pit where packed groups of people didn’t restrain them. “Gila Monster” was a fan favorite and was the cause of the giant mosh pit that took place in the GA pit. To close their set, they performed a cover of Yothu Yindi’s “Treaty” accompanied by King Stingray and Stuart Kellaway himself on bass, a founding member of Yothu Yindi. Stuart Kellaway is also the father of King Stingray’s lead guitarist Roy Kellaway.
King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard closed out their mega three-hour marathon show run at Austin’s Germania Insurance Amphitheater. They will continue their regular tour in Houston and a few other southern cities. Their shows are typically available to stream live on their YouTube channel and can be watched in full after each show.
KING GIZZARD & THE LIZARD WIZARD
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