Every King Gizz live show reviewed (on '13)

29 August, 2013 Fill Your Lungs Preview Show (Group viewing in Tower Unite)

Listened with my buddy Squid in near total silence after playing a bunch of Golf (1984, NES). The music felt strange to me at first. I hadn't anticipated to be struck so resonantly when I've just finished a weeks long sabbatical The magic of live music on track 2, Pop In My Step, felt beamed into my fore-brain like the divine light of heaven. Sound-wise, it dances enrapturing visions of browsing Bandcamp when I was younger. Exploring the alternative rocks and the crisp breeze from riding bikes. I remember Ashby and the Oceans' Dead Names (2015)[1] , My buddy Maxie's album Pastel Hand Grenade (2016), PWR BTTM's Dairy Queen (2016). Names I don't think of enough. Distinct edges and angles of lower fidelity. It's a beautiful performance and not too long if you have an atrophied attention span.

Strong listen. Give it a play if you're into the previous reviewed show[4].

[1] Decent low-fi feelings album from memory. My first breakup text I've ever received was right when the tonal shift dropped on Child of Light which is kinda funny. Bandcamp.

[2] I remember enjoying the album enough to get one of Maxie's redbubble hoodies. Bandcamp

[3] I like pop music sometimes. Bandcamp.

8 February, 2013 PBS Studios in Melbourne for their Drive Line.

The show is strong. The vocals remain lo-fi and hollering as ever, but the instruments shift slightly in their intonation and use. The backing for the most part sounds like instrumentals to coming-of-age indie flicks. All crashing cymbals and electric guitars synthesize to produce a yearning for bygone times, harmonica stopping by from time to time to visit like a close relative. The heights of speed, tempo breaking the speed limit, has a cadence that is almost silly. Off-kilter in a remarkably playful manner. A comparison that comes to mind is Franky off the Earthbound soundtrack[1]. It's more "fun" than their prior work.

An isolated moment rings strongly in my mind of the listen. The second half of the opener, Head/Pill, is an oddity. Unlike the rest of the work that sticks out, hoarse yells abound, the vocals are tender. A surreal, almost cooing spell that rings through my skull like a bike bell. I remember indie and alt rock bands that sound similar[2], rocky sound and crashing cymbals make high tempo backing to vocals that comfort and serenade. Rarely yell and wail. There is virtue in both, but given their prior work I can't help but welcome the change, however brief.

Good showing all around. Solid listen.

[1]Can be heard here as well as when fighting against Franky or the New Age Retro Hippie. Funky!

25 November, 2012 Cherry Fest

For the first viewing, i was going to put it on in Tower Unite to emulate a concert-like experience. However I delayed that and later shifted to a group condo viewing with my friend Chevro on the TV. Through no fault of the musicians and entirely due to my fear of hands doing nothing, I got distracted for but a moment playing Tokimeki Memorial on the in-game emulator. The first few desperate minutes of a run, going in headstrong sans preparation like the Youtube guy with the long video[1]. However, at around 19 minutes there was a sick guitar bit and I had to save and quit.

It is interesting, inciting that disparity between visual-physical stimuli, the playful yet calendar-like visuals of Tokimemo and the grand strategy of the player's school years, and the audio of a bunch of Australians doing psych rock slammerjams. I'll probably return to this concept in a later review

As for the show, it was similar to prior at first , a bit closer to their more punkish early works, although this may just be due to the recording. At around four and a half minutes in, the sound changes. It introduces something new instrumentally, though. Another facet of newer Gizz breaks through concrete. A bass more tender than before, instruments less crazy fast. Effects applied to the voice become apparent in a way I feel akin to their later work. The synthesis of acoustic and synthetic is something i started to retroactively recognize in the studio works I've heard. Mind Fuzz in particular.

I think I liked this one better than prior entries. Might be my favorite so far. Give at least Black Tooth a listen

December 31st, 2011 Espy NYE Listened to this one playing quake champions classic[1] on quake's first episode. I like playing as commander keen for the pogo stick, thus the art above featuring that. I'm mostly used to jank source engine air control, so having a more responsive and stick-based method of pogoing feels like an uncertain breeze: Worryingly strong and still refreshing. When you get in a groove, movement is a nimble dance around and atop beasties. It's a beautiful thing.

From track one, Elbow, it feels closer to the band's later stuff. Not in a bad way, mind. I really like the newer stuff, probably more. I don't know why. Is it the harmonica? With each live show it feels closer to Nonagon, the album I've listened to the most. Is it the vocals growing more tamed, no longer the Mischief Brew hollering[2]? All the same, its a smoother pull off the jam cigarette. Still got those premium calls and responses at time. Chant-able

The experience of experimenting with modded Quake movement blends into beautiful, Bob Rossian hues with this show. The guitars and percussion alone vaguely remind me of the surf. Crashing, but not destructively. The tide isn't fully out, the waves brush roughly against the rocks without disrupting the barnacles and snails. The fluidity of bouncing around quake levels, platform to platform, goomba stomp to goomba stomp. This matches well with the music.

Give it a listen. Strong closer for the year.

December 9th, 2011 Meredith Music Festival

This one's neat. The tapes page links to a Stereogum article that touches up on the festival[1]. It was a big deal for the band to be invited. Kenny-Smith said it was a dream.

There's something I really admire about amateur live recording. Broken metronome between high-fidelity and muffled to heck. It's an odd sort of beauty and transformative element. There's a video essay I've watched[2], way back now, about the elevation of horror in Alien by watching it on a 4:3 VHS on a rinky-dink countertop CRT. The shapes being vague, the audio sometimes harder to parse. I had an experience closer to the present with that. Iron Lung camrip. I don't know the theater experience, but it did make it tense enough to be hard to watch at times.

That's the main recording, really. It comes through strongest on the opener, Talk Talk Talk. Really feels like the bootlegger is stumbling. I like that a lot. Give it a listen if you like that sort of thing, or at least admire the caterpillar on the poster[3].

[1] Stereogum - The Wild, Wonderful World of King GIzzard & The Lizard Wizard

[2] HBomberguy - Power of VHS

PBS 106.7FM '11 (Willougbys Beach Promo) KGLW Tapes recording date 10/17/11 Reviewed 2/21/26 Made to promote their upcoming EP, Wiloughby's Beach, I listened to this in a synchtube with my dear friend Sam. Conversation was light in the sidebar. Observations of repetition in King Gizzard's earlier work met with mentions of Nonagon Infinity[1]. I like listening to music with Sam, it is a good friend.

The whole show, and I suppose this is on account of the proper radio setup, feels less grungy in a way I find welcome. They still bark on Lunchmeat, but it's crisp. Refreshing, even. In a way I find myself at the lowest rotting in place. The higher fidelity of this versus the last one[2] makes me feel like I've just had the idealized vision of a cold shower. A 4am polar swim in the New England summer.

My favorite track off of this Let It Bleed, a lower tempo piece. The song consists entirely of pining for seeing one's lover. The mantra, a simple and direct "I want to see my lover" resonates between that familiar harmonica I adore. It may be due to overexposure, but I can't help but think of the Freebird solo with the harmonica when I hear their earlier use of it. The track is a nice novelty, I might grow tired of it as we go along, but that's okay. I'm in this for the long haul.

Sorry for the delay on this. Hope to get stuff out more regularly soon.

TEMPERATURE'S RISING SERIES 2 EPISODE 1 (2011) KGLW recording date 4/25/2011 Reviewed 2/19/2026 https://tapes.kglw.net/2011-04-25

Short one today, so I opted to fully immerse in watching the band without other stimuli. There were memories brushing up uncomfortably, as through a mirror dimly, of what I'd have looked like in my younger days when I went outside more. Nonetheless, the 2 song performance is great. Done for the RMIT TV show Temperature's Rising[1], it feels fairly similar to their music final at the same university[2] in terms of crashing drums and barking lyricism. I struggle to parse the lyrics at times, as is the nature of live show recordings and my own auditory problems. While the first track Eddie Cousin, has some real fun undulating oo's and oowooaaoos, I'm giving it to the second of the two tracks, Trench Foot, as my favorite showing. The harmonica clips the mic in a weird way at times and the whole thing feels like it'd play while driving through a wooden structure in Saints Row. Also there's a clip where they try to start and the cymbal falls over[3]. That stuff's comedy gold. Great showing, but I am looking forward to their music evolving as we go further in this project.

GEELONG GAOL MUSEUM, FEBRUARY 12th, 2011 https://tapes.kglw.net/2011-02-12 [reviewed 10/14/2025] Listened to initially on 9/20/25. sick something foul for the few days preceding. I don't remember it well, and my notes aren't particularly coherent, lots of talk of dizziness on tracks 1-5. laying in bed But I remember there was a part, and I've corroborated with my previous notes and a re-listen, where there was a sort of wailing I found nice. 6th track, Cover of "Ghost" by Love Migrate[1] right after the untitled[2] one. Hasty notes in margins mention Little Teeth's "Japanese Candy"[3], a track I'm quite fond of. Listening to Ghost Goodnight Owl now, no longer impeded with sickness, I can attest. it is a thing of beauty. The wailing is more punk than the saccharine beauty of Little Teeth, but the ghost lingers. Strong recommendation you give this a listen for those curious. Far and away gotta hand it to Ghost for being the darling track of the set.

Contemporary Music Final (2010)

listen date: 9/20/2010

This'll be the inaugural post to an ongoing project/bit idea I had wherein I discuss listening to every King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard Live Show. In this one, we will be reviewing the first known recording to my knowledge: Stu's final project for his bachelor's in contemporary music. Run time's sixteen-odd minutes and I listened to it doing deliveries in Easy Delivery Co.