Concert Review: King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard’s Catatonic 3-Hour Set at Germania Amphitheater
King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard, joined by supporting act King Stingray, bellowed through Germania Amphitheater on Nov. 15.
Written by Rachel Joy Thomas
Photos by Elina Carrasco
King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard continually define the rock world, passing new towering milestones each year. Beginning in Melbourne, Australia in 2010, the band moved from traditional garage rock with the full-length 12 Bar Bruise to psychedelic folk with Float Along – Fill Your Lungs. Eventually developing a wholly devoted fanbase in the mid-2010s, the group continued to experiment with its sound, eventually releasing albums like Paper Mache Dream Balloon and Nonagon Infinity. In 2017, the band released five albums in one year that explored Middle-Eastern, psychedelic, and jazz roots. Known for genre experimentation, a prolific 26-album discography, and powerful live performances, King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard quickly became a fan favorite for rock music, carving its own niche into the music world.
2024 promised more historic peaks for the band. The group created its own record label, p(doom) Records, named after the potential of artificial intelligence to doom the world. While preparing to embark on a tour, the band released its first album on this record label, Flight b741.
For its 2024 world tour, King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard received support from Geese and King Stingray, with the latter performing in Austin on Nov 15., 2024. Performing a special set that left the crowd mystified, King Stingray later joined the headliner for the last song of the night.
KING STINGRAY
King Stingray, a Yolŋu surf-rock outfit from Australia’s Northern Territory, supported King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard on tour. Founding members Yirrŋa Yunupiŋu (lead vocals) and Roy Kellaway (bass) come from the echelons of Australian rock royalty. Both are related to founding members of Indigenous rock group Yothu Yindi, notable for combining Aboriginal music with pop and rock influences.
King Stingray caught some lizard heads off guard, coming to the stage a minute early at 7:29 p.m. The Australian outfit started with the wholly unique “Lookin Out” featuring droning didgeridoo, completely subverting the group’s classic surf-rock sound and interlacing it with Indigenous roots.
Lewis Stiles slammed through drum breakdowns, sonically crashing against Roy Kellaway’s riffing waves in “Through The Trees.” The band’s vocalist Yirrŋa Yunupiŋu swayed and danced to the music while emphatically singing: “Let’s not waste any more time / Which way do you want to go? / Through the trees / Out into the deep blue sea.”
Traditional Yolŋu-performed “Milkumana,” proved a highlight for King Stingray’s set. The undeniably funky song, performed with interchanging Yolŋu Matha and English vocals, provided the show with an interval of warmth. Bright, psychedelic techno colors bathed Kellaway, who tastefully combined rock and disco influences while moving to Stiles’ rhythm.
A cover of “Waru (Fire),” originally performed by Warumpi Band, serenaded the venue. Yunupiŋu’s leading vocals, mixed with occasional clapstick playing, melded with backing bass lines and surfabilly rhythm guitar. The band’s energy proved infectious, getting many people to dance or jump in the air.
Closing out its portion of the show, King Stingray slid into “Let’s Go,” a classic from the band’s repertoire. The song, injected with references to nostalgia and home, repeated: “I’ve been driving for a long time / Just to get back home.”
KING GIZZARD & THE LIZARD WIZARD
King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard graced the stage at 8:19 p.m., taking just a few moments to tune up and prepare instruments. Joey Walker, one of the band’s many multi-instrumentalists, crouched to the ground to mess with his effect settings as Lucas Skinner, the band’s primary player, strummed a few introductory bass notes.
With a deafening gong strike from Michael “Cavs” Cavanough, the 3-hour set began. Stu Mackenzie, one of the band’s leading vocalists and guitar players, opened with the riff to “Head On / Pill.” Ambrose Kenny-Smith breathed into a harmonica, adding a country kick to the older track from the band’s 2013 album, Float Along - Fill Your Lungs. Mackenzie took on lead vocals, with Walker adding additional higher refrains. Kenny-Smith added continuous wah-wah effects along with Cook Craig and supplied an ample amount of “wood” for the beginning of the track.
Mackenzie, playing on a classic bruised-up Yamaha SG-A, hyped up the crowd as he began riffing and experimenting with his guitar strings. Ushering in the song’s hard-hitting latter half, Mackenzie stuck his tongue out, wagging it in the air before playing sharp notes. Tapping his foot to the song’s melody, the singer scattered “oohs” throughout the crowd.
Mackenzie wrapped his mouth around the mic and punched his effects pedals before “walking out,” the over 25-minute track with ample head bobbing and improvisations.
A few notes of other songs like “Antarctica” and “Shanghai” rang out during the scintillating opener, setting the stage for additional tracks in the setlist. Some teased songs, however, remained whispery reminders of the band’s ginormous catalog and didn’t make their way into the 3-hour set.
Walker took a moment to speak to the crowd, mentioning that “the first ever show we played in America was in Austin … Fucking Pysch Fest 2014, dogs! It’s a fucking spiritual homecoming if you ask me.”
After an extended performance of “Head On / Pill,” the band transitioned to its newest album, Flight b741. “Field of Vision,” a track the group christened to live audiences in August, blared into the venue from booming speakers; Cavanaugh brashly banged against his drum kit with such force that the kit visibly shook, reverberating into the high-decibel playing speakers.
Kenny-Smith sang into the mic for the opening refrain, sounding off in a higher pitch than Mackenzie or Walker could muster. Spunky vocals outlined the track’s bluegrass sound, uplifting Skinner’s dark bass notes and Walker’s thundering riffs. At the chorus, when Kenny-Smith slyly sang, “In this field of vision,” Walker and Mackenzie echoed in a boyish cry, “Field of vision!”
A crowd member named Ethan ascended to the stage for King Gizzard’s classic performance of “Nuclear Fusion.” Unfortunately, Ethan had no idea how the song went, singing “Straws In The Wind,” into Walker’s microphone because he didn’t recognize the track’s buzzing introduction. Without a beat, the band broke out laughing at the irony. The mushroom hat wearer who drove across the United States to see them live had only just become a fan that year. The lizard outfit, of course, found the man admirable and laughed off the exchange.
Walker and Mackenzie took the lead vocals after the chorus, allowing Kenny-Smith to spend some time at his Roland keyboard set or play a deep-rooted harmonica solo. Cook Craig, another multi-instrumentalist, maintained a laser focus on his keyboard setup for the rest of “Straws in the Wind,” while phantom notes of the synth-laden “Phantom Island" echoed into the venue. With an iteration that proved heavenly, the band concluded the first “act” of its three-part, three-hour marathon.
For the second part of King Gizzard’s show, technicians rolled out a synth table that tours with the band. “Straws In The Wind” segued perfectly to the synth lineup featuring songs from The Silver Cord and Butterfly 3000, the group’s most technical, production-focused records. Technicians pushed the heavy rig, composed of countless different synthesizers, moog synthesizers, various modular synths, and faders toward the middle of the stage.
Skinner approached the table to play with a dual Moog Minotaur, while Mackenzie worked with an Arturia Keystep to vocode melodies. Mackenzie’s keyed synth started the sequence, which the other band members followed one after another to perform a nearly 13-minute iteration of “Intrasport.” From then on, the show’s second act featured seamless transitions and near endless, rich performances from the group’s album outliers.
The band grooved through varying iterations of “Interior People” and the Butterfly 3000 track “Shanghai,” while moving between the synth table and various other instruments. Forty scintillating minutes glimmered with the electronic touches. Technicians eventually rolled out the table at 10:42 p.m., hyping up the audience for the group’s third act.
Kenny-Smith screamed “Let’s get back to rock!” segueing back to varying guitar strings and a more padded synth performance. Stu Mackenzie sang the beginning notes to a new song, “Grow Wings and Fly,” a track absent on any of the band’s previous 26 albums. Instead, the track, which was first teased during performances of “Shanghai” years prior, debuted and teased the potential sound of a new album from the group. The song, laden with influence from Flight b741, played out with an intricate fingerstyle. Walker and Mackenzie switched between offering lead vocals, often supporting each other’s growling refrains with alternate high pitches. During one of Mackenzie’s ferocious guitar solos, Kenny-Smith offered quick spurts of harmonica that blared throughout the venue.
Eventually, Kenny-Smith took on some of the track’s lead vocals, rasping against his microphone before returning to his keyboard setup. The rock-heavy track ebbed and flowed with grooving, tantalizing rhythm guitar, fingerstyle layered plucking, and Mackenzie screeching, “Bye bye Shanghai” to close out the song. Ending with just Skinner and Cavanaugh playing a few delicate beats and rhythms, Kenny-Smith lightly added “Thank you so much!”
After “Le Risque,” King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard moved away from its new discography to its canon of face-melting metal tracks. With the exception of “Mars for the Rich” from Infests The Rats Nest, the rest of the lizard heads' tracks turned into a mind-numbing performance of PetroDragonic Apocalypse's most popular cuts. Cavanaugh blew through each performance with ease, sweat rolling off of his forehead, carving its way toward his occasional smile.
The group took a few moments for reprieve in between its perpetual jam session. Nearly every member paused for a shot of liquor in between tracks to mend tiredness and maintain their enthused energy. Kenny-Smith talked frequently to the crowd, hyping up performances with gusto. He continued to do so even as the band rolled into the last song of the three-hour set.
“Alright, we’re gonna do something real special,” Kenny-Smith said into his microphone. Mackenzie raced toward the back of the stage to adjust the settings on his guitar as Joey continued talking to the audience. “Everyone saw the support act, King Stingray?”
The crowd cheered wildly, “It’s a huge honor to have them on tour with us. We’re gonna do something for the history books, for ourselves, and for everyone back home.”
Walker took over on the mic, saying: “[There’s] A very important song called “Treaty” by Yothu Yindi, and it’s about Indigenous Australians campaigning to get recognition. [They] have a treaty recognizing [them] as the traditional owners of Australia,” Walker told the crowd. “It’s a very special song in Australia and it also fucking rips.”
Members of King Stingray, along with the “OG bass daddy,” referring to Stuart Kellaway who played bass for Yothu Yindi, took to the stage. Each member grabbed instruments — basses, clapsticks, and didgeridoos — to perform with King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard’s core members. “Time to get funky,” Walker added, before letting Cavanaugh rip into a vivacious beat against the hi-hat.
Yunupiŋu took lead vocals for the track, basking in soft orange and red lights as he emphatically sang the beginning notes to Yothu Yindi’s song of protest. The funky, vivacious track combined Aboriginal traditional instrumentation perfectly with both bands' rock influences, being especially impacted by King Stingray’s surf-rock leanings. The performance left crowd members in awe, especially given its tone shift from the previous metallic PetraDragonic Apocalypse sound.
In the background, Stiles happily hopped up and down while Cavanaugh took on the brunt of the instrumentation. Finishing with one hand propped toward the sky, Yunupiŋu yelled the track’s final roar. After, he bowed and bathed in the roar of concertgoers before quietly stepping away from the stage. Kenny-Smith yelled out to the crowd “Sweet dreams!” as band members offered each other soft side hugs and individually moved off of the Germania Amphitheater stage.
With a once in a lifetime performance, King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard re-cemented its place in Austin 10 years after its first Levitation performance. Alongside King Stingray, they also defined themselves as standing with Aboriginal bands in solidarity with their movement.