by Jacob Wingate-Bishop

Australian psych-metal band King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard brought their doom-mongering headbangers and mushroom-induced jams to the Manchester Academy on Saturday 2^nd September.

Following a string of US shows in various residences across the states in summer 2023, King Gizzard kicked off their EU tour with two shows in the UK: a special midnight show at the Manchester Academy, following a day-long ‘psych fest’ that took place in the same city earlier, and a slot at End of the Road festival just 24 hours later.

After a predictably meticulous opening DJ set from psych-cumbia group Los Bitchos – full of certified classics in ‘Macarena’, ‘Voulez-Vous’ and ‘Heaven is a Place on Earth’ – the boys from Melbourne waltzed onstage to rapturous applause. Instantly, the atmosphere was something beyond electric. Fans were already on the verge of tears, arms like fleshy spires in the air, vape clouds coalescing high above us and the sweat beginning to form on our brows. There were a few words of thanks for our attendance, some inter-band banter, and then the spectacle began to unfold.

King Gizzy inhabit a strange kind of planned chaos when it comes to live shows. The songs are different every night, extended jams and improvs rife, and yet everything clicks together like a complicated, clockwork contraption. The group rifled through a number of suitably psychedelic hits from their back catalogue, opening with ‘Crumbling Castle’, a ten-minute fan-favourite from Polygondwanaland, before segueing into ‘The Fourth Colour’, a relative deep cut for the group. No two King Gizzard setlists are alike, with the group savouring the chance to change things up, night after night. Album tracks and deep cuts are played right beside live staples and signature hits, adding an extra layer of anticipation to every Gizzard gig.

The band are also well-known for their extended jams onstage, taking already ten-minute tunes to quarter-hour anthems, packing face-melting solos and improvised flourishes in excess. ‘Magma’, a selection from the group’s jammy Ice, Death, Planets, Lungs, Mushrooms and Lava, switched back and forward between heavy metal rocker and thoughtful reminder on the unrelenting, unforgiving force of mother nature. ‘Ice V’, from the same album, proved the same; a testament to King Gizzard’s uncanny ability to fuse the poignant with the downright epic. A lot of artists try too hard when it comes to writing music with a message. Most of the time it can come off as blatant, tired or preachy. The Lizard Wizard, meanwhile, weave poetic verses and terrifying, apocalyptic imagery with crunchy, tungsten-heavy riffs. It comes as naturally to them as breathing, or shouting ‘whoo!’ mid-tune.

One such example came in ‘Supercell’, off Gizzy’s latest record – and venture into environmentalist thrash metal – PetroDragonic Apocalypse; or, Dawn of Eternal Night: An Annihilation of Planet Earth and the Beginning of Merciless Damnation. With glam rock-esque chants in the chorus and anti-pop-like lectures about the climate crisis, it’s no wonder the track goes down a storm (pun intended) live. Yet King Gizzard could have played any tune off the new album that night and it would have got the same reaction – as evident when they ripped into the prophetic nine-minute ‘Dragon’, a metaphor for the man-made cataclysm of climate change.

But that’s not to say a Gizzy show is all solos, thunderous drumming, sweaty mosh pits and tough topics. With a catalogue as rich and diverse as Gizzard’s, there are always a few ‘anomalies’ thrown into the pot, and the boys know when to slow it down a little. ‘Kepler-22b’, a pretty synthy, lo-fi track about adolescent astronaut ambitions was as wholesome and mellow as it should have been, before keyboardist (all-roundist, really) Ambrose Kenny-Smith launched into ‘The Grim Reaper’, a hip-hop song which very much pays homage to the Beastie Boys. Given the location of the venue, the boys threw a tongue-in-cheek curse Liverpool’s way, then offered up their thoughts of the monarchy, before launching into climax.

Given the group’s eclectic setlists, there’s no end to the hype surrounding which track will close out a KGLW show. There are so many candidates, from the sprawling prog-metal masterpiece ‘The Dripping Tap’, to three-minute opening suite of 2016’s Nonagon Infinity, and any of the new tracks from PetroDragonic Apocalypse… In Madchester, though, the Aussies opted for one of their most hypnotic, psychedelic anthems, ‘Rattlesnake’.

This seven-minute rocker from Flying Microtonal Banana ­– the first of three forays into microtonal tuning the band have undertaken, alongside KG and LW – stretched out into thirteen minutes onstage, complete with jams, back and forth from all members, multiple blistering solos and a whole lot of sweat. In the end, the sound was pulled before the group could properly finish. But in a weird way, it seemed fitting. How could you possibly end something that incredible without it still feeling too short, somehow?

Despite the abrupt end – the venue has a hard curfew of 2AM, though that was still ten minutes away at this point – King Gizzard were all smiles and thanks. Sweating, panting and exhausted, the six-piece from Australia poured out their heartfelt gratitude, gave one last cheer and then left the stage. There was a good half-second before anyone dared move. It was like we were some captivated parish, stunned into silence by the very appearance of Christ – and Christ wielded a guitar. There was utter elation dispersing through the crowd, and the collective feeling we’d all just bore witness to one of the group’s truly defining shows.

There’ll be bootlegs and knock-off merch borne from that night, but nothing will capture that special kind of sorcery. King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard are one of the few genuinely unique bands around today, and every show of theirs is a hypnotic ritual. We just dance to the pipers’ tunes, and thank Gizz for it.