Live Review: King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard, Tropical Fuck Storm, Altin Gun

It's an hour before the first act and The Tivoli is completely full, ready for the Brisbane leg of King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard’s tour.

Hailing all the way from Amsterdam, Turkish psych-folk band Altin Gun take to the stage. This was both a wildly curious yet absolutely perfect addition to the night’s line-up. With mixtures of fuzz, wahs, and vocal spans that sound like they’re consistently riding the octaves in waves, people are dancing about and genuinely taking an interest in every little thing occurring on stage – whether it’s instrument changes, percussion solos or the way vocalist Merve Dasdemir appears to sway around the space, there’s a piece of perfection in everything.

As Tropical Fuck Storm take the stage, there’s no longer any breathing room in the house. Playing and singing a few bars of AC/DC’s TNT during their final soundcheck, some of the crowd are led to believe their actual set has begun and start screaming out the words and moshing around – hell, there’s even a person in the mosh holding a pair of crutches in the air. They delve into hypnotically dark psych-rock – as if all the angsty parts of The Underground Youth were overloaded with steroids. It’s a brilliant bridge between the funkiness of the opener and the mayhem about to occur.

Like any hyped crowd, the room is impatient and overly keen for the headliner to begin. The house lights drop and, in true cinematic style, the Nonagon Infinity animation lights up the backdrop of the stage. Following an enormous roar from the crowd, seven-piece psychedelic-rock gods King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard take the stage.

Frontman Stu Mackenzie speaks in only short phrases or single word responses, but nothing more than a “hey” is needed to psych up the crowd for their opening tracks I’m In Your Mind Fuzz and The Balrog. The band, much like on their albums, keep everything flowing. Even during guitar changes or band members grabbing a quick drink, there’s always at least one instrument carrying the noise, making this feel like 24/7 psych-rock nightclub.

They get into Crumbling Castle, The Fourth Colour and Polygondwanaland, and by now the crowd is moving in all different directions – it’s impossible to stay in the same location for more than half a second.

They take it down a level with Stressin’ and Work This Time. Somehow the crowd still find ways to bloody each other up, but things kick into another gear the second the rattlesnake animation appears on the backdrop and King Gizz roar into Rattlesnake, Robot Stop and Gamma Knife. One thing that stands out is Ambrose Kenny-Smith literally being carried from one side of the stage to another when taking the vocal reigns due to his left leg sitting in a brace.

Exhaustion kicking in is an insane understatement as they finish up their set a little after 11.30. With a crowd that’s constantly moving and physically destroying one another, a King Gizzard moshpit is a thing to be feared and embraced. Tonight was a massive success and overall a brilliant spectrum of a show.