The Fat Angel Sings

The Aussie psych rockers made their long awaited Red Rocks debut this month, a “potent dose of live Gizzard“. It was a long time coming (to be precise, 29 months since the originally scheduled dates, which were postponed three times due to COVID), but King Gizzard And The Lizard Wizard finally made their Red Rocks debut two weeks ago as part of a three-show run featuring “marathon three-hour sets” each night, with no repeated songs, the band seems to be performing at the peak of its on-stage power, even as it releases three distinct new albums in the month of October. 

Read more from The New York Times bestselling author and certified member of the Gizzverse, as he takes us through the first two shows, and what’s to come with next week’s Red Rocks finale. If you missed the first two shows, they’re still available on-demand and discounted with the three-night pass with nugs.com.

Australian psych rockers King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard played two consecutive marathon shows at Red Rocks Amphitheatre on Monday and Tuesday. The band delivered two 90-minute sets each night and premiered the two 15-minute tracks from its new album, “Laminated Denim”, during the intermissions.

After delaying the Red Rocks run three times due to COVID-19, King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard arrived at the picturesque amphitheater raring to go, and so did the crowd. Long lines of fans waited for their turn to purchase vinyl and other merch as the sun started to descend and the band emerged on stage, As cloaked in mystique as Gizzard often is, the group defused any artifice between band and audience on opening night by nonchalantly walking onstage to tune and adjust its instruments 10 minutes before showtime. Frontman Stu Mackenzie was wearing a green alligator visor in a nod to the lovable Gizzard mascot, and once the concert began, there was no doubt of its significance for the musicians on stage. “I can’t feel my legs,” keyboardist Ambrose Kenny-Smith shouted. “Holy shit,” guitarist Joey Walker said. “Let’s get fucked up! Have a good time and love each other.

Kicking off the long-awaited run with “Mars for the Rich”, off 2019’s “Infest the Rats’ Nest”. The first set of the weekend included selections from the band’s recently released “Omnium Gatherum” and the even more recently released “Ice, Death, Planets, Lungs, Mushrooms and Lava“.

During the intermission, King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard premiered “The Land Before Timeland”, the first of two tracks from the band’s newest release, “Laminated Denim”, which was made for the occasion.

Set two started with a tease-heavy “Rattlesnake” with quotes from “O.N.E.”, “Automation”, “Honey”, “Sleep Drifter”, and “Minimum Brain Size”. The medley turned out to be a preview of what was to come, as the band proceeded to play “Automation” and “Honey” with additional teases of “Sleep Drifter” and “Billabong Valley” before segueing into “Sleep Drifter” and “Ataraxia”. Fellow Aussie artist Leah Senior, who opened the shows, joined the band for a sequence of “The Reticent Raconteur” > “The Lord of Lightning” > “The Balrog” > “Trapdoor” with an extended flute jam in the latter. The band concluded night one with “Hot Water”, “The Grim Reaper”, and “Planet B”.

Walker’s girlfriend later brought out shots for the whole band in honour of Walker’s impending birthday, while Kenny-Smith prowled the stage to sing “The Grim Reaper,” what he described as “some weird ass satanic rap for ya.” The 27-song evening concluded with a final dose of thrash-y rock’n’roll in “Planet B,” which Gizzard finished exactly one minute curfew.

Tuesday, the venue was likewise bustling with anticipation as the crowd filled the natural amphitheater. King Gizzard opened the show with a celebratory “The Dripping Tap” in honour of Joey Walker‘s birthday, followed by “Gaia”, which featured a mid-song drum solo by Mickey Cavs. The set included “Cut Throat Boogie” with snippets of “My Babe” and “Got My Mojo Workin’” and bassist Lucas Skinner‘s favourite song, “Sea of Trees”. “The Bitter Boogie” closed the set as the third “Boogie” song of the night, following “Boogieman Sam” and “Cut Throat Boogie”.

Just as they had on night one, King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard used set break to premiere a new song from “Laminated Denim, “Hypertension”. Known for their prolific output, KGLW’s debut of two new compositions is all the more impressive considering they had recorded a whole other album specifically for the occasion but ended up releasing it and writing another after the run was postponed (the first album was released as Made In Timeland, of which Laminated Denim is an anagram).

The final set of the run featured 19 songs including the six movements of “Altered Beast” suite with Leah Senior narrating as she does on the album. Following runs through “Muddy Water”, “Iron Lung”, and “Robot Stop”, the band closed out the run with “Gamma Knife”, “People-Vultures”, and “Mr. Beat” with a reprisal of “Iron Lung”.

Knowing that the Red Rocks shows will feature no repeat songs, we can identify some likely suspects for the third gig on November. 2nd. They include favourites such as “Venusian 2,” “Plastic Boogie,” “Self Immolate,” Am I in Heaven,” “Float Along — Fill Your Lungs,” the complete “Crumbling Castle” and “Intrasport,” plus several songs from “Murder of the Universe” that weren’t played this week, “Shanghai” (the lone song in live rotation from the 2021 album “Butterfly 3030”), newer material such as “Sadie Sorceress” and anything from the upcoming album “Changes,” which will be released a few days before Red Rocks night three. One thing’s for sure: King Gizzard always seizes big moments like this, making November. 2nd a show certainly not to be missed.