On Saturday, August 31, King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard, with support from fellow Australians Stonefield and ORB, made a stop at Washington DC’s 9:30 Club, playing for an absolutely stoked, sold out crowd.
The Melbourne, Australia septet is known widely for their incredible live shows. Indeed, at the 9:30 Club, they gave a focused, mature, and skilled performance, with a setlist spanning over twenty songs. The crowd, in contrast, lost its collective mind. In the photo pit, the photographers weaved around each other while also dodging club security as crowd surfers—including one dude in a Teletubby costume, the purple one—made their way over the barrier. From the balcony, the tightly packed crowd could be seen transforming most of the club’s floor into a giant mosh pit. It was barely controlled, joyful chaos.
King Gizzard are out making the rounds in support of its fifteenth studio album, Infest The Rats’ Nest, a thrash metal entry into the band’s genre-bending catalog. This just months after the release of the blues-rock Fishing for Fishies. It’s worth noting that, in 2017, the band released a total of five albums, demonstrating a productivity that warms the cockles of my Buckethead-loving heart.
While the band’s latest album is a delightful thrash heap with the setlist reflective of this turn to metal, King Gizzard did not hesitate to mix it up and shift genres: the band’s bold, electronic “Cyboogie” is naturally reminiscent of Kraftwerk; “Plastic Boogie,” from the aforementioned Fishing for Fishies, features the harmonica; and “People-Vultures” and “Wah Wah” are entries from 2016’s epic garage/psych rock Nonagon Infinity.
The evening started off with enjoyable openers ORB, followed by Stonefield, setting the stage with a stream of heavy, 1970’s- influenced tunes, whetting the crowd’s appetite for headliner King Gizzard. In total, the trio of bands made for an exhilarating and memorable night.
ORB
STONEFIELD
King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard Setlist:
Venusian 2
Organ Farmer
Plastic Boogie
Crumbling Castle
The Fourth Colour
Deserted Dunes Welcome Weary Feet
The Castle in the Air
Cyboogie
The River (pt 1)
Wah Wah
Road Train
Alter Me
Altered Beast I
Gamma Knife
People -Vultures
This Thing
Sense
Work this Time
Mars for the Rich
Venusian 1
Planet B
