King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard @ The Anthem [DC] - 10/24/2022
Stu Mackenzie of King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard at The Anthem in DC (Photo ©2022 Mauricio Castro)
King Gizzard goes wherever their musical interests want to take them. Thrash metal? Infest the Rat’s Nest! Psychedelic? Float Along - Fill Your Lungs! A whole album solely centered around a chord change from D major to F# major? Changes! There are so many entry points for this band that when it’s time to catch them in concert, you can’t help but feel like you just heard songs of theirs from albums you’ve yet to discover. Not an unfounded issue, given that they’ve released 23 albums in 13 years, three of them in October 2022 alone. Every night is a different setlist (even their *three* sold-out, three-hour-long Red Rocks marathon sets this year all had unique setlists), and it’s not out of the question that people will be talking about their ‘DC 2022’ set amongst dedicated circles for a long time to come.
At their sold-out Anthem show in DC, the band played songs from nine of their 23 albums, a blistering two-hour set that highlighted the many reasons fans flocked to the band in the first place. The six-piece band kicked off with a live debut of “Hypertension,” off of their recent Laminated Denim LP, followed by the more playful “Blame it on the Weather” and “Presumptuous,” both off of 2022’s Omnium Gatherum. But soon after, they followed up with a one-two-three rambunctious combo of songs from Murder of the Universe, I’m In Your Mind Fuzz, and Infest the Rat’s Nest, some of their heaviest, rowdiest discographies to date. This half-hour block was chock-full of mosh pits, crowd surfers, and guitarist Stu Mackenzie going wild on the guitar. But while Stu is the face of the band to many, Ambrose Kenny Smith got to show off his lead vocalist chops with “Straws in the Wind,” while Mackenzie noodled on his guitar at the back of the stage, giving Smith a wide berth to strut his stuff.
The band’s live sets are not only known for its diversity, but also for its element of discovery within songs. They love to extend their songs and improvise before Mackenzie yells out another “WOOOO!” to push the band into the next section of a song. They love inserting tiny nods to their other songs too - “Cellophane” featured a part of “Alter Me” and the extended version of “Rattlesnake” featured a section of “Nuclear Fusion.” To top off the night, the band took fans back to their early output, with a 15-minute long version of “Float Along - Fill Your Lungs,” (up from the original’s six minute clock-in), a come-down from a wild night that gave fans yet another reason to dig deep into the rapidly expanding Gizzverse.
Changes, Laminated Denim, and Ice, Death, Planets, Lungs, Mushrooms, And Lava were all released in October 2022 through their own KGLW label.
Opening for King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard was Leah Senior, who KGLW fans will recognize as the narrator behind the band’s Murder of the Universe (which she reprised for the live renditions of “The Reticent Raconteur” and “The Lord of Lightning” on this night). Her latest release is 2020’s The Passing Scene through Flightless Records.
