King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard Played Their Biggest Headline Show Ever, And It Was Explosive

Three years only after their very first UK gig in front of 200 people at the very intimate Shacklewell Arms, King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard played a ram-packed O2 Academy in Brixton yesterday - their biggest show ever. Five thousand pairs of eyes and ears pealed and soaking up the mind-blowing performance of the mystical septet.

Anyone lucky enough to get over the endless queue surrounding the venue before the band was due on stage, got to appreciate Mild High Club's supporting performance. You know, the band that recorded Sketches Of Brunswick East with King Gizz, one of their gazillions albums this year - yes, we lost count, track, and basically all sense of reality with these guys...

So how do you fit 5 annual albums in a 2-hour gig? You don't. You have to make choices, obviously. King Gizzard's choices are based on the energy - the politically correct term to define insanity. There is no room for some of the dreamy and groovy tunes that took up quite some space on their latest release Gumboot Soup... You're not here to chill, you're here to shake your head sticking your tongue out, and throw yourself over some keyboards (or whatever's suitable) "Mackenzie style".

But to be able to go through 2 hours of this madness, whilst demonstrating their versatility and outstanding technical skills with all sorts instruments on top of their impeccable precision (Hello drummers - yes, there are also two of these); the band had to divide the gig into two sets. The 15-minute countdown in between left the crowd quite antsy and very eager to jump in for another ride.

The second part of the show saw the audience treated to 3 tracks from their very special "unowned album" released in early December, Polygondwanaland. Sadly, 'The Fourth Colour' was cut short, although the progression onto 'Robot Stop' from the classic Nonagon Infinity could be considered a gesture of goodwill!

The lights went off right after the 'Some Context' outro to 'Gamma Knife', leaving a forever buzzing crowd deserting the O2 Academy as they chanted 'Rattlesnake'... And it's probably still echoing as we speak.

Setlist:

Set 1:

1. Rattlesnake

2. Greenhouse Heat Death