King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard Drop A Comprehensive Set On The Palace Friday Night

 

Photos by Vito Ingerto

King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard have a sound more diverse than a Coexist bumper sticker. With
elements of prog rock, heavy metal and alternative/indie, this group from down under are a next level
jam band. These guys are prolific too, producing 20 studio albums in the 10 years that they have been a
band. They are releasing 3 albums this month. The two already out are Ice, Death, Planets, Lungs,
Mushrooms And Lava, (Check out the video for “Iron Lung” ) and Laminated Denim, billed as the sequel
to Made In Timeland. Look for Changes to come out on October 28th . They flat out rocked the roof off of
the Palace Theatre in St. Paul on Friday night.

First up was Leah Senior. Also hailing from Australia, had a folky gentle demeanor and a spellbinding delivery. She was accompanied by a bass and electric guitar as well as a drummer. She also had her sister with her, adding beautiful harmonies throughout the set. She leaned heavy on her latest release The Passing Scene for her set. Her sound is nostalgic, 60’s and 70’s ish flavors. And her songs have meaning like songs from that era, touching on social and environmental issues tastefully. Her vocal range was amazing, her singing was heartwarming, even on the songs with somber themes.

The lights went down right around 9:15 and the sold out Palace erupted. Drummer Micheal Cavanagh started the show off by throwing a couple of autographed drum heads into the crowd, amping them up even more. The band started the night off amped up too, opening with the rocker “Gaia”. This set up the next trip to the stratosphere when they broke into “Predator X”, which received some of the loudest response of the night. Vibrant, multicolored lights bathed the appreciative audience. Stu Mackenzie was spewing filthy riffs on his reverse flying V as fiery images blazed across the stage wide backdrop during “Self-Immolate”.  The crazy thing is how effortlessly the band slides from tune to tune. The whole evening was one big psychedelic rock/rave dance party.                                                                                                                                                                                                           

There was some crowd surfing, some moshing and even some “dead” dancing Friday night, a fun mix paired with a soundtrack just as varied from King Gizzard & The Wizard Lizard Friday night.

Setlist: Gaia – Predator X – Self-Immolate – Tetrachromacy – Open Water – Static Electricity – East West Link – Medium Sized Brain – Ice V – The Garden Goblin – Blame It On The Weather – Magma – The Dripping Tap