My notes for this show were waterlogged.
They’ve dried out but many of my notes look like black watercolors.
King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard, rounding the bend on their 15-show U.S. residency tour, attempted to reward their soaked fans that did not have the benefit of a Morton Salt umbrella (aka the indoor venue at the Salt Shed). The shows were initially slated for the indoor stage that opened recently to great reviews.
But they were moved outside to accommodate more fans, and that meant the shows couldn’t be moved back inside because of capacity issues, despite heavy amounts of rain that were forecasted and did fall on the fans and exposed parts of the stage.
Check out KGLW.net’s setlist here.
For many fans, the biggest reward of the night was when, late in the set, the band pulled out ”Change” off their 23rd album, Changes, which was released last October. Until this tour, the band had not played live anything off the album.“Astroturf” and “Hate Dancin’” were two songs they had already played off the LP.
Guitarist Joey Walker came out in a vest ”to be in solidarity.”
They launched into the opener “Gila Monster,” the first song that was debuted off their forthcoming album back in their March tour of Europe.
That loud metal song set the tone for the front end of the set, along with the equally heavy “Converge,” another off PetroDragonic Apocalypse or Dawn of Eternal Night: An Annihilation of Planet Earth and the Beginning of Merciless Damnation, due June 16.
“Planet B,” the first of two in a row off 2019’s Infest the Rats’ Nest was a third loud song, and all of these songs were more than welcome by the crowd, looking for some heat in the cold rain.
“Mars for the Rich,” got things heated up enough on stage for frontman Stu Mackenzie to also strip down to a shirt.
“Plastic Boogie,” off 2019’s Fishing for Fishies, was pulled out for the first time on this tour and the first time in more than a year (last played June of 2022), and Ambrose Kenny-Smith got his harmonica out, as the show’s tone changed a bit.
Apparently the band was itching to pull the tarp off their synthesizer station, but held off because of the steady rain still falling.
“Let’s play ‘Hot Water’,” Mackenzie said.
The song off 2014’s I’m In Your Mind Fuzz was a sure way to keep the crowd both happy and revved, and it sounded as if the band was teasing Hypertension, but instead they just launched right into it and they carried the song from 2022’s Laminated Denim pretty deep.
The rain pretty much stopped by the end of Hypertension and Stu asked aloud, “Can we take the cover off?”
The synth station was unwrapped from its tarp, and the band went into Joey Walker’s “This Thing,” also off Fishing For Fishies. It’s one of my faves from the LP for Walker’s vocals, Kenny-Smith’s harmonica, and, at least on this version, Stu manned the synth station. The combination of Michael Cavanagh and bassist Lucas Harwood was pretty thunderous.
“This thing we left outside is waterlogged
And all I know is one of us has to wring it out”
The line was even more perfect on this night than it was on the rain-delayed final night at The Caverns.
“Magenta Mountain” the first of three, not in a row, off 2022’s Omnium Gatherum was next, and the synth station came in handy for this one, as the Walker likes to take this song into techno funk territory and made no exception here.
Mackenzie played his Holy Explorer guitar, while Walker and Cook Craig were on synths, and a synthy song got synthier.
“Look past the dying trees
Beyond waterless seas
Atop the horizon, adjacent to the sun
Give my word that it’s there”
Kenny-Smith noted in the break afterwards that the band would be changing it up, before the band played the opening notes of “Change.”
For this, and it was quite clever, Mackenzie and Walker switched instruments, with Mackenzie now on the synth station and Walker played an axe.
Fans have been hoping the band would play this, and I heard the band sound-checked the song the day before.
It’s a song with some powerful messages and ideas and several sections. I anticipated Kenny-Smith’s lyrical rap delivery, but I wasn’t expecting Cook to have a part, as he did. It wasn’t altogether evident on the album that it’s his voice in the section including:
“Is this what we consider changing
For the better? Maybe
Is this what we consider changing
Ah, save me”
After that, the band asked if there were any Aussies in the house.
Yes, there was at least one, Simon Grof, who had reached out to me prior to tour. He was standing five feet behind me and the band took notice. Groff happened to be visiting Chicago for work and extended his trip to see these shows.
That was a pretty cool moment before they played “Garden Goblin,” Cook’s quirky song off Omnium about (evil?) garden creatures.
And then it was “The Dripping Tap,” also off Omnium. I’m not sure if the rain started back up before or after they began this lengthy song, with several sections, but the rain did kick up and blow in on the stage.
