OSLO, Norway — King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard’s March 8 show at the Sentrum Scene will probably go down as my favorite of the six I chose to attend on the band’s 17-show tour through Europe and the U.K. this March.
The band has played some pretty cool venues on this tour, but the Sentrum Scene might be the coolest one I got to see. Heading into it, I was most looking forward to the last on my trip, Prague’s Lucerna Theater, the site where Phish played one of the best versions of “Ghost” back in 1998 (and I write this on the eve of that show).
The Oslo show, at least for the writer, was the perfect mix of a weird and cool venue that lent itself to the visual experience, a loud setlist that ended on a loud, psychedelic note, and meeting new friends, some close and others far from home. Photo by Javier Serna
The Oslo show was great, the setlist decisions up my alley with an ending I loved, the venue was bizarre and lent itself to artist Jason Galea doing some incredible work, and I made some friends both from the U.S. and Norway at this show — bros I plan to catch more King Gizz shows with in the future.
I’ll come back and tell in another post about all the amazing people I met on Gizz tour. Here are three of them, including Seamus Patrick Kobayashi O’Connor of Oak Park, Ill., as well as buddies Jonathan Hairgrove of Trondheim, Norway and Halvor “Ivan” Njåstad of Oslo, Norway. Photo by Seamus O’Connor
It will be hard to top all of that.
So, yeah, this show.
It all started with the amped up Norwegian crowd breaking out into a choppy clap as lead Stu Mackenzie strummed the opening to K.G.L.W., the heavy and dark bookend of both 2020’s K.G. and 2021’s L.W. It was a good way to get the crowd going from the start, and the tactic worked.
After a brief interruption and some laughs over a shirt thrown on stage, the band launched into the opening riffs of “Nuclear Fusion,” from 2017’s Flying Microtonal Banana.
There is a brief pause normally after that, but Joey Walker, who sings, I think, “Nuclear Fusion,” through a vocal effect that slows his voice down (you know that low-end vocal effect), pointed to the ceiling and took an extended pause before grumbling the line about as slow as one could.
Then the song’s funky, catchy and thrashy melodies kicked in, with fans joining in the “do dos,” and Mackenzie’s loud and spacey guitar lines kind of take you away.
“The devil’s inside all of the details,” he sings.
“Oddlife,” off of 2020’s K.G. was next, a less heavy but mysterious song that’s harder to describe because of the way it metamorphizes, though hard rock still applies. Mackenzie shows off the beautiful tone he gets out of his microtonal banana guitar, and he takes it for an improvisational, psychedelic ride. The band, in the midst of that jam, teases “Rattlesnake” before returning to the main chorus line and ending it.
Kenny-Smith stalked the stage during “Supreme Ascendancy.” Photo by Javier Serna
Then it was Ambrose Kenny-Smith’s turn to shine his devilish vocals with the loud “Supreme Ascendancy,” off L.W.
There was a fan that screamed “Best band in the world!” in the pause before King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard launched into a second in a row from L.W. In “Pleura,” a song that shifts back and forth between loud metal and delicately delivered lyrics that happen to be quite dark.
The band kept the dark, heavy metal going with “Gaia” off 2022’s Omnium Gatherum. The song is reminiscent of a 1980s thrash metal band or two, and Mackenzie pulled out his Reverse V guitar for this one.
Drummer Michael Cavanagh leads somewhat of a jam with his drum kit, Mackenzie and Walker in tow at first, but goes fully solo for an extended period. Walker sits down and looks over his shoulder at Cavs’ drumming display while Galea splashes the entire stage in blue light.
Michael Cavanagh had the entire room’s attention during his drum solo on Gaia, including Joe Walker who sat down to take it all in. Photo by Javier Serna
Cavs brings his solo to an end, the crowd screams, and the band launches into its loud and beautiful metal ending, Mackenzie throating, “I am Gaia!” before him and Walker ride their axes triumphantly.
Walker shows his heart, shouting out International Women’s Day, in between songs.
The band chooses another heavy banger in “Mars for the Rich,” keeping the otherwise mosh happy Oslo crowd, which didn’t appear to have any body surfers as has been the case in most other cities, happy. A man-handled blowup crocodile was the closest there was to the appearance of body surfing at this show. The crowd also sang part of this song’s melody at one point.
It’s the first of three from 2019’s Infest the Rats’ Nest.
Next was “Perihelion,” and “Superbug,” and the band seemed to be in complete control of the stompy, head-bangy and moshy crowd, each metal song bringing out slightly different mosh modes.
Joey Walker and Stu Mackenzie can take things delicate or loud, often within the same song. Photo by Javier Serna
Walker on a spacey synth loop and Mackenzie on flute set up a wicked “The Grim Reaper,” from Omnium Gatherum, Kenny-Smith prancing around the stage with a wireless mic and delivering hip-hop rhymes with the swagger and tone of a Beastie Boy. Then Mackenzie again chimed in with eerie flute work, that cosmic synth loop still looping.
The band was only 12 songs into the show, but they only had three left. Three songs released last year that the band appears to love playing.
They absolutely crushed it, opting for “Iron Lung,” a psychedelic tune they have been playing so well on this tour and also a departure from the heavier metal the band concentrated in this show.
This version was louder than the more delicately played version from Tilburg, but it did have some soul along with loud energy, plus a bunch of “Hypertension” quotes, that song that is one of two 15-minute songs that make up 2022’s Laminated Denim LP.
This “Iron Lung,” though. It was so good, the whole band contributing in remarkable ways.
Kenny-Smith delivers his line with intensity.
“Frog breath, steam tent!
Neck paralysis,
Frog breath, steam tent!
Scared precarious”
The two main guitarists swirl around each other’s soaring heights, complementing each other so well, lifting with improvisation, the song coming back to its soulful, bluesy, heart-piercing ending, more Hypertension teases included, before Mackenzie wraps it up vocally.
Stu Mackenzie with the flying microtonal banana guitar. Photo by Javier Serna
And then the band goes ahead and plays “Hypertension,” another departure from the heavier metal stuff that made up the majority of this show. This song just lends itself to bluesy improvisational jamming, and I don’t think King Gizz here would be accused of passing up that opportunity. I love a lot of the guitar work here on the back side of this version of the song and it does get heavier as it gains steam, Mackenzie swaying his axe back and forth as he’s splashed in green projector light.
They stretched it out a bit before coming to an end, Kenny-Smith then setting up the closer with, “This one’s about our fountain of youth, never-ending.”
That was before he and Walker exchanged suggestive jokes as they have done on more than one occasion on this tour.
Jason Galea’s projections can be appreciated from up close, but they might be best taken in from afar. Photo by Javier Serna
It was the “Dripping Tap,” that 18-minute gem off Omnium Gatherum, and Kenny-Smith sang his lines that sandwich and bookend this song with its passages from hard rock to funk and feature a bit of his bluesy harmonica.
The Oslo crowd might prefer some heavy metal, but couldn’t deny their love for this song, dancing wildly to its building, frenetic tempo, each theme exciting the crowd a little bit more, egged on with each layer of the song as it repeatedly turns to Kenny-Smith’s lines.
The crowd wanted more, and there was about 7 minutes left before a curfew, but there have been no encores on this tour and that trend continued.
While I was making new friends at this show, my wife, nursing a bad ankle, opted again to watch the show from the seated balcony where despite being far from the band itself appeared to have the better view.
The weirdness of the Sentrum Scene’s design was apparent and clearly incorporated into what Galea was doing with his light and projector rig. I was completely astonished by her camera roll. Because of course up close you can see there is a lot going on in the video card department, but, like a Monet, you might need to take a step back to get the full picture.
Oslo’s Sentrum Scene is a weirdly cool room that lends itself to being a canvas for Jason Galea’s incredible projector light show to paint. Photo by Sue Serna
My plan is to have some additional posts about the trip once I get back to a more normal routine (I’ve been travelling through Europe for going on three weeks now). I want to publish additional stories about the venues I visited, about Galea’s incredible work, and about the incredible people I met along the way. Stay tuned for all of that.
And Jam in the Stream will resume coverage of the tour for the March 12 show in Prague, the last of six shows covered.