Live Review: King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard, Mt Mountain, Aborted Tortoise, Ghetto Crystals

An unseasonbly warm day made for perfect conditions for heading down to the Bakery and enjoying a cold brew and a mix of garage and psych-rock on Friday night. Their name may be unfamiliar, but Ghetto Crystals feature two prominent names in the local scene – KT Rumble (ex-Abbe May) and Scarlett Stevens of San Cisco. The garagey, electro-pop mix was the perfect start to the evening and Rumble’s fluoro yellow jumper had people flocking in to see what all the fuss was about. This reviewer never thought he’d be able to take a track called Shake Your Badonkadonk seriously, but that last track was an absolute corker. Definitely worth keeping an eye on.

Aborted Tortoise are an extraordinary beast. For most (maybe all?) of the members, this musical project is their first, and with all members only being 18 years of age, they’re already filling out rooms and it’s glorious to see. It’s easy to understand why, though; they’ve nailed their sound down and they’ve got the skill and charisma to match it with the best in the business. Their garage-rock stylings are catchy and super enjoyable to throw yourself around to – hopefully the boys’ll be able to show the rest of the country what they’ve been missing out on soon enough. A little while later, Mt Mountain turned the volume up to 11 with an intense set of tracks. They’re definitely sounding a lot doomier now than they used to be, but there’s no way anyone’ll be complaining. It’s always good to hear how a band’s been working and developing their sound. They didn’t gather as much attention as the Tortoise boys, but they’re definitely heading in the right direction.

Finally, it was time for King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard. Despite having been touring the country for almost a month, they showed relentless energy after clambering on stage and launching into their manic style of psychedelic rock with the first track from their upcoming new album, I’m In Your Mind. From there, it was an onslaught of instrumental action – the drummers flogged their drums raw while singer-guitarist Stu Mackenzie jumped between that and flute-playing when Hot Water was performed. Each track lengthened out in live form and seamlessly flowed into the next – Hot Wax sent the crowd into prolonged frenzy, while final track Empty fuzzed out into nothingness, leaving everyone feeling spent but also buzzing and probably already looking forward to the next time the lads grace the west side of the country.