Live Review: King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard

We've lost count of how many shows King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard have sold out at this venue (six? nine?). There's banana beer available at the bar (in honour of King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard's latest Flying Microtonal Banana album, perhaps?) for five bucks a pop, but it sells out quick-sticks. There's an abundance of ironic mullets among the crowd, who gather around the periphery of this venue's in-the-round stage set-up. There's no support band and before too long these prolific legends file outta the band room and through the crowd to get to the stage (what? No road case entry a la Adele?). King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard open with Open Water, from their latest set, and are ridiculously match-fit. "Thanks everyone for taking time outta their lives to come out and see us on a Tuesday," says frontman Stu Mackenzie. 

Alternating vocals further show off the insane talent in this band with Joe Walker and Ambrose Kenny-Smith also taking turns at the mic, while Kenny-Smith brings a vulnerability to Gizz that's different from the energy he supplies fronting his other ace band, The Murlocs. Billabong Valley sees Walker and Kenny-Smith's singing simultaneously and it's a beautiful thing ("Mad Dog Morgan/He never gave a warning"). The trippiness Gizz brings is probably the closest those among us who were not around to view the majesty of Jim Morrison-fronted The Doors will ever get to those feels. Have these boys been spending time in the Californian desert on ayahuasca? The sitar sends us loopy.

Although the stage is in the round, King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard still mainly all face one way, but there's plenty of chairs and tables to stand on. Rattlesnake coaxes a lady up onto the bar for a dance and the song is absolutely mental. The recorded version of this song is off its head, but live we're absolutely at its mercy! Kenny-Smith sporadically plays a vibraslap (which sounds like an actual rattlesnake - genius).

Phew! Time for a quick break. And two sets for a band of this nature is a cracking idea. When they return to the stage it's a monster mash-up of Alter Me and Altered Beast (both 2 and 3) and the band themselves are an altered beast tonight with double drumming: Eric Moore faces Michael Cavanagh, the pair bookending the stage. Those rhythms are truly complex, but they keep metronomic time. Kenny-Smith's harmonica really is the glue that hold Gizz together. "I see you/I can see right through" - and we're hypnotised. To kick off Nonagon Infinity (that descending riff attack!), Mackenzie wags his head from side to side, tongue lolling — are we tripping? Sometimes Mackenzie's facial expressions make us feel as if we're hallucinating. This song is reprised leading into Gamma Knife and then People-Vultures - wha? Cue serotonin surplus! The band's songs fold in on themselves with repeated motifs and we actually consider calling a medic - euphoria can't cause a heart attack, right!? And this occurs even before Cellophane. And those trademark, repeated-single-word Gizz choruses are so bloody fun to shout along with!

Sometimes our best view is via the large mirrors on this venue's walls but the atmosphere created by these cats is next-level. The Night Cat isn't particularly crowd-surf friendly but, never fear, King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard fans will not be put off by the low ceiling. You can see the boys getting jazzed by their own sounds up on stage and loose punters in the crowd look like footage from Woodstock. This band just get better and better with every gig. This scribe, definitely a frequent flyer, is now even more obsessed.