The King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard Creative Universe (KGATLWCU) reaches far and wide — from every t-shirt design to the free livestream of every North American tour stop the band is hosting on their Youtube channel, they clearly care about their fans (and the feeling is mutual).
“Thanks for coming out!” Frontman Stu Mackenzie exclaimed last night at Vancouver’s PNE Amphitheatre, greeting the crowd as the other five members of the band — Ambrose Kenny-Smith, Cook Craig, Joey Walker, Lucas Harwood and Michael Cavanagh — took their positions.
“Light em up, T!” Mackenzie yelled to his lighting tech as he surveyed his kingdom, looking out onto the ear-to-ear grins on every face the house lights touched. Then began the two hour onslaught, kicking off with “Doom City” as a gentle pit opened up in front of the stage and naturally gained momentum as the night wore on, as if the crowd was waiting their whole lives for this opportunity to blow off some steam.
“Light ’em up, T!” Mackenzie yelled into the mic again before hand-picking someone from the crowd to come on stage; this time, her name was Sherry. “You know what to do,” he said, handing her the mic.
“Nuclear Fusion!” she said into the mic, a little too excitedly. “Nah Sherry,” Mackenzie replied calmly, “Say it slow.”
“Nuuuuuuuuuclearrrrrrrr,” She said into the mic, dripping in distorting filters. Mackenzie closed his eyes, slowly nodding with a satisfied smile. “Fuuuuuuuuuuussssiiionnnnnnnnn.”
“That was deep,” Mackenzie said, smiling again.”That was profound.”
The crowd roared in approval, marking the opening of the heavier section of the show with energetic performances of “Nuclear Fusion,” “Dragon” and “Flamethrower,” most of which featured the live throat singing of bandmate Joey Walker, adding an extra level of intensity that matched the ongoing barrage of guitars and drums. The pit opened up into a swarm of concentric circles, hypnotically flowing in and out of one another.
Later in the night, the band rolled out a table littered with vintage synths, drum machines, sequencers and keyboards to perform “Swan Song” and “Set,” trailing off into a mini techno dance party before reeling back to share “Antarctica” and “Rats in the Sky” off their latest album, Flight b741.
As the second-to-last stop on this leg of their North American tour, the band gave the crowd everything they had. Incredible showmanship and gravitas, gratuitous leads in and out of songs and extended guitar and drum solos, closing the show at a semi-reasonable 11 p.m. sharp on a school night.
