Check Out King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard on their Tour
/A buddy of mine invited me to see King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard live last night. Let’s discuss.
I have never really listened to their music much before. I have heard a few tunes, and my friend told me to listen to their most recent record, which I enjoyed quite a bit. My brother is a super fan as well. He couldn't go last night, but he has told me a ton about the band before. So, I met my friend at the venue, The Factory in Chesterfield, which is rad, and we took our seats.
The opening band was called Geese. They were pretty solid. They are kind of post punk/rock music. They had some cool visuals in the background while they played. I liked their stuff and I will be listening to them in the future. Then King Gizzard took the stage. Again, due to my lack of knowledge, I didn't know what to expect. I know that they play a bunch of different genres of music, that they have recorded 26 records and that they are super talented. But I have never seen a live show and I didn't know what they would bring to the table. I was super impressed with the next two hours of music. They opened the set with a run of metal music. They were shredding. They blew through these songs and I found myself bopping along. Immediately I was impressed with how proficient they were with their instruments. Metal music is tough to play, but these guys made it look easy. The guitars sounded really good too. They had the right distortion and you could hear every note in every solo. After the metal music run, they switched over to some psychedelic music. Again, I was shocked, in a good way, that they were so easily able to pull off a totally different genre. They sounded great yet again. The instruments sounded good too. And this time I could fully hear the lyrics and singing, which was dynamite. I loved the use of a wah wah pedal during this part of their set. They switched over to electronic at this point. The stagehands brought out a table that had a bunch of different boards attached to it. Every member of the band, except the drummer, gathered around the table and took the crowd to space. They were making crazy noises come out of those boards. The mics had a wild robot-like effect being used. They made a genre of music that I don't really like very listenable for me. One of the band members informed us that what the "leader" of the band just performed was totally improvised, which is wild. That takes an insane amount of talent to do that at every show, and it was rad. The set ended with about seven or eight songs that were a mix of blues and rock. This was my favorite part of the show. I love this style of music and King Gizzard played it exceptionally. The tone and sound coming off the three guitars was amazing. The keyboard player busted out the saxophone. Earlier on the "leader" of the band played some flute. Some of the other members got to show off their vocals during this part. The two guys who are front and center on the stage absolutely destroyed the guitar.
When my buddy and I left, I was in awe of what I just witnessed. Not knowing much about the band made the experience that much better for me. This was all new to me, and it blew me away. The band has a great energy on stage. They want you to dance and have a good time. They seem to genuinely like playing music with one another. The fact that they can shift from genre to genre was so cool. My buddy told me they play a different set every night, which is bonkers if you think about it.
I don't know why I never bought into the hype before, but King Gizzard more than won me over last night. I am a fan for sure now. I have found myself listening to their music all day today and enjoying the hell out of myself. This was a great, great show. I definitely recommend seeing them live if they are near your hometown. You will have a blast. I sure know I did.
Ty
Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast.
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