King Gizzard’s show at Thompson’s Point in Portland, Maine, Tuesday was my first time seeing the band since their Hollywood Bowl U.S. tour closer on June 21, 2023.
That seemed like so long ago, and, yet, just like yesterday.
Regardless, it was too long between Gizz shows for my taste, but Phish’s Mondegreen festival was something this phan couldn’t miss (and so Gizz’s opener in DC and pair of marathon shows at Forest Hills Stadium had to be sacrificed).
The four-day Phish festival in Delaware left me in such poor shape (lack of sleep and heat-related illness) that I was in no condition for Gizzard’s Boston show Monday either, licking my wounds at the Wild Duck Campground & RV Park (thanks to the recommendation from Seb the Lege’) in Scarborough, Maine, that night instead.
This Portland show was a memorable one, because of the antics of bandleader Stu Mackenzie, who took a dip in the Fore River while the band closed out the set with “The Dripping Tap.”
But more on that below.
The show started out with the band’s synthesizer station rolled out on stage, the band splashed in light blue light, and Mackenzie wearing a bucket hat. All were huddled around the station but drummer Michael “Cavs” Cavanagh. They opened with Theia off 2023’s The Silver Cord.
“Look at where you are,” Mackenzie said. “This is beautiful. … Some water. There are a few people out on a boat.”
“Swim on in,” Ambrose Kenny-Smith said, foreshadowing Mackenzie’s dip.
This section highlighted what I’m calling Gizz’s foray into “jamtronica.” Guitarist Joe Walker likes to call it techno. He can call it whatever he likes.
I’m personally glad to see this band take a deeper embrace of electronic dance music beyond their 2021 LP Butterfly 3000. Last year’s The Silver Cord had many detractors, and I didn’t love it as much as other Gizz albums, but I’ve tried to take the approach with all new music that it needs time to percolate in our brains.
I love where the band has taken The Silver Cord, even if it may be a stretch for some.
This opening section also included the title track, “The Silver Cord.”
Walker vocals on “The Silver Card” through a vocal effect sounded so robotic. I love the way they splash it all over with synthesized organs.
“I am a vessel
I’m just a poor boy traveling with my bodies
Bodies, body imagery, imagery”
On the back end of this song, the band took The Silver Cord for an improvisational and yet still very electronic ride, with plenty of untz. At one point electronic symbols going on top of the band’s own human drum machine, Cavanagh.
There was a Knight Rider sound on the jam as the band brought the section to a close, with the entire section lasting about 27 minutes.
“Thank you for letting us do that shit. We generally feel truly very grateful that we can do that in front of all you people and people don’t leave,” Mackenzie said, as the station was rolled off stage.
Then Gizzard got into the thrash metal that so many of their fans love with the song “Gaia,” off 2022’s Omnium Gatherum. The song slowed down to an extended drum section from Cavanagh, as Walker, Mackenzie and Cook Craig chimed in with their guitars, before Cavanagh took a drum solo.
“Give it up for my friend, Michael,” Walker said, in the pause after the solo before the song’s beautiful metal outtro was performed.
Cavanagh took another solo at the end and as the band launched into “Flamethrower,” off 2023’s thrash metal LP PetroDragonic Apocalypse; or Dawn of Eternal Night: An Annihilation of Planet Earth and the Beginning of Merciless Damnation.
In the pause before the band played “Mars for the Rich” off 2019’s Infest the Rats Nest, Walker dedicated the song to his high school friend Laura who moved to Portland, Maine from Australia.
Stu also noted the size of the sold-out crowd.
“Is everyone here from Portland, Maine?” he said. “This is a crazy turnout.”
“Fuck Elon Musk,” Walker said in the pause before the next song, “This Thing” off 2019’s Fishing for Fishies. “He was going to be alright. … He’s a fucking piece of shit.”
Walker has the lead vocals on this song, which also features heavy harmonica from Kenny-Smith.
Ambrose killed on harmonica on this version, and the band was tight.
Then it was a suite of four in a row from 2014’s I’m in Your Mind Fuzz, with “I’m in Your Mind,” “I’m Not in Your Mind,” “Cellophane,” and “I’m in Your Mind Fuzz.”
I’m a sucker for Mind Fuzz suites, and this jammy version got me good.
There were “Witchcraft” teases inside “I’m Not in Your Mind.”
Mackenzie counted off before launching into “Cellophane” with “One, two, three, four!”
Kenny-Smith’s harmonica on “I’m in Your Mind Fuzz” was notable.
There was banter with Cavanagh before the band played the first off their new LP Flight b741, “Le Risqué,” as Cavanagh has some vocal responsibilities on the song.
“Ah ha ha alright
No heart
No tick
I’m weak as piss, no risk”
The stage antics got cranked up a notch by Kenny-Smith on the track. He skittered back and forth on the opening lines of the song, “Evil Kenievel!” before Mackenzie
Walker suggested that the song be used on the upcoming Happy Gilmore 2 movie, which is apparently in production.
Kenny-Smith then had lead vocals on the live debut of “Rats in the Sky” also off the band’s latest LP.
It wasn’t clear to me the next song was at first. “Iron Lung,” started out with some weird sounding percussion, that reminded me slightly of Blue Man Group (that’s not meant as an insult.
As always, the band delivered this song with such soul. This was another jammy and breathtaking version, with intense guitar playing from both Mackenzie and Walker, as well as contributions from Kenny-Smith on saxophone.
Kenny-Smith carried his mic stand around the stage as he delivered the song’s lyrics.
“Frog breath, steam tent, neck paralysis”
The band shined gracefully at the end of this, with so many sounds coalescing, including that sax, percussion and the guitars.
Kenny-Smith had another lead singing part on “Let Me Mend the Past,” off 2013’s Float Along/Fill Your Lungs.
Walker joked that Kenny-Smith wrote the song when he was 7 years old.
“I was 7, about eating ice cream,” Ambrose said, before dancing around the stage with the mic, no stand this time.
Mackenzie pulled his flute out for “Trapdoor,” off 2015’s Paper Mâché Dream Balloon. Mackenzie’s switches quickly between delivering lines and playing the flute, and this version did include some flute soloing.
Finally, we come to the show’s closer, which was dedicated to drummer Cavanagh’s dad, Bill Cavanagh, “the best plumber in the world,” according to Kenny-Smith.
Ambrose hopped down off stage early in the song to deliver some of the opening lines of the song.
Photo by Javier Serna
He quoted “Antarctica,” with “Take me away, I want to feel them frost flakes on my face again.”
He then started singing “Portland, Maine.”
“I want to see you take Stu over to that lake again,” Walker chimed in, pointing to the nearby Fore River.
A smile came over Mackenzie’s face.
“Take him away, Portland, Maine,” Kenny-Smith sang as the band launched back into “The Dripping Tap.”
After a bit more guitar playing, Mackenzie shouted, “Let’s go for a swim,” before unsoldering his guitar and ripping off his shirt.
“Do you know what a lemonade stand is?” Stu asked. “We’re going to have a big group cuddle. … We’re going to go into that muddy as fuck body of water next to the airport. Sound good?”
And that’s just what happened.
Mackenzie jumped off stage, climbed into the crowd, camera in hand, and crowdsurfed his way to the back of the venue’s floor, while the band continued their song, sans Mackenzie.
“Make sure he gets back from the lake,” Ambrose sang.
Minutes later, mid-jam, Mackenzie reappeared on top of the crowd, dripping wet from his apparent swim.
The version included “Sea of Trees,” “Head Onboard/Pill,” “Witchcraft” “Flamethrower,” and “Alter Me,” teases, according to KGLW.net.
The crowd hung on afterwards, hungry for more, but not encore was in store.