Returning to the scene of a milestone triumph can be a challenging task where many bands fall short of the assignment. This is the challenge for King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard in their return to the historic Hollywood Bowl, where they delivered a magical three-hour “epic” rager for the ages on the 2023 summer solstice (their biggest American show yet at the time). Attempting to rival that energy level here on Sunday, 10 August, is a tall task, yet there’s an auspicious connection to that previous visit that bodes well.
It was here at the Hollywood Bowl that band members from King Gizzard mingled with band members from the LA Philharmonic, which wound up catalyzing the concept of adding orchestral accompaniment to the group’s latest album, Phantom Island. Now King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard are back in Southern California to wrap up a relatively short American summer tour on which most of the shows have been backed by the local metropolitan orchestra, with renowned conductor Sarah Hicks as the glue between the band and the orchestras from city to city.
“Hello USA! We just landed got thru customs without them kicking us out for being woke (woke is cool) Time to rock out with a giant big loud orchestra to the good peoples of USA for a few weeks,” King Gizzard posted on social media upon arriving in the States on 27 July, the day before the tour’s first show in Philadelphia. “No bigots at the shows, please, only peace and love! Let’s geeeet it! Free Palestine. P.S. Hi!”
King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard’s socially conscious stance is nothing new and is part of what’s led so many fans to become so enamored with the group, along with their sensational musical skills. Band members are thus referred to in a familial manner – guitarists Stu Mackenzie & Joey Walker are just Stu & Joey; bassist Lucas Harwood and drummer Michael Cavanagh are Lucas and “Cavs”; keyboardist Ambrose Kenny-Smith is just “Amby”, while multi-instrumentalist Cook Craig is of course known as “Cookie”.
Rock ‘n’ roll has long been a haven for dreamers who value peace, love, diversity, egalitarianism, and environmentalism. King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard embody all of this, standing out in the 21st century as a band that embraces the ideals of the 1960s that made California a hot spot in the rock revolution. When King Gizzard declares “woke is cool”, it’s another endearing moment of speaking truth to power against the corrupt militaristic powers that be. Recognizing the insanity of the modern world and expressing those feelings in both word and song as musical anthropologists is simply part of this Lizard Wizard’s DNA.
Sunday, 10 August @ the Hollywood Bowl – Los Angeles
It’s a warm summer day in the City of Angels, whether fans are spending it out at Venice Beach or in a lengthy early merch line at the venue seeking the coveted event print from King Gizzard’s in-house artist, Jason Galea. With the LA Philharmonic as co-hosts of the show, fans can also bring in their own beer for a win-win boozy bonanza.
It’s still broad daylight out when King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard hit the stage to perform 2025’s Phantom Island, a sister album to 2024’s Flight b741. With a lot of the crowd sitting down and some still eating dinner, the overall vibe is much mellower than usual. Yet there’s a unique experience in seeing a powerhouse band like King Gizzard backed by a big orchestra.
The album’s third song, “Lonely Cosmos”, marks the point where the orchestral impact begins to assume a more cinematic quality, as the group sing about a lonely astronaut contemplating profound existential questions. “Panpsych” adds more guitar riffs as they sing about finding your zen and exploring the astral plane.
The vibe continues to deepen when “Spacesick” kicks off side B of the album, an allegory for being a touring musician who spends long periods of time away from home. The guitar chords hit with more of a hook as it starts to feel like this space flight is building towards a jump to hyperspace. “Aerodynamic” gets the crowd grooving more as Stu plays acoustic guitar and sings about wanting to be “aerodynamic”, with the strings coming in strong after the chorus.
The energy level keeps rising on the upbeat “Sea of Doubt”, a turning point in the protagonist’s voyage — Cookie sings of treading water until he reaches the shore, Amby sings of “a light at the end of the tunnel”, and Stu sings of swimming “out of the sea of doubt”. Vibrant psychedelic riffage follows as the tone of the journey moves in a cathartic direction. “Silent Spirit” has a majestic vibe too, with the strings boosting the cinematic element that surges on the album’s finale, “Grow Wings and Fly”.
When Stu sings, “Bye bye Shanghai, grow wings and fly, let’s get real high, transcend this life”, there’s a flashback to the 2023 solstice show when “Shanghai” from 2021’s beloved Butterfly 3000 album included a soaring “Let’s get real high” jam that became a seed for the song that spring. It’s a sensational moment as past and present connect, with the orchestra elevating the multi-dimensional song to an even higher vibration.
The Bowl is getting lit now as the audience has become fully engaged. However, rather than go for a jam on “Grow Wings and Fly” (which seems ripe for it), the song ends, and thePhantom Islandportion of the show is concluded as Stu notes that the orchestra is going to take a break. “But you know us,” Stu says, hinting at the band’s well-earned reputation for prolific output. “We never take breaks,” Amby responds in sardonic satire.
Stu and Joey ask if everyone’s dinner was good, prompting Cookie to request some tiramisu. A fan apparently offers some, and Joey goes down in front to retrieve the plate and then feeds a bite to Cookie, while Amby scores some popcorn.
The tiramisu generates a PopMatters flashback to Rising Appalachia‘s headlining set at the Sonoma Wild festival in June, where charismatic vocalist Leah Song sang of her love for tiramisu during a freestyle jam at the end of her group’s set. Considering that Rising Appalachia are one of the few bands besides King Gizzard that will tell their fans the truth, it seems that what the world needs now is a collaboration between arguably the two wokest bands on Earth.
Snack time prefaces a scintillating jam as Stu and Joey lock in on guitars over a tight groove for a wild ride that includes teases on “Hypertension”, “Plastic Boogie”, “The Dripping Tap”, and “Magma” before eventually moving into a rocking microtonal jam on “Open Water” from 2017’s Flying Microtonal Banana. It’s a stunning sequence as the energy level is now feeling very similar to the 2023 solstice show (which concluded with a monster jam on “The Dripping Tap”).
The back half of the set features the return of the orchestra on an hour of King Gizzard classics for one glorious triumph after another. The jazzy psychedelia of “The River” from 2015’s Quarters takes on an even more sublime sound with the strings, augmented by Amby’s harmonica and frenetic guitar dueling between Stu and Joey while the band’s iconic gator characters flow by on the screens.
Progressive rock masterpiece “Crumbling Castle” from 2017’s Polygondwanaland hits deep, enhanced by both the orchestra and the psychedelic visuals to make the song feel like a soundtrack for a mystical anime movie. The furious conclusion leads to an outro section from just the orchestra, conjuring even more cinematic flavor.
The next song is introduced as “about LA”, which turns out to be “This Thing” from 2019’s Fishing for Fishies. “Well, I fake a lot of symptoms to be a different person,” Joey sings, suggesting the LA reference alludes to actors in the movie business and all the aspiring stars trying to fake it till they make it. The song has a quirky, funky vibe until it switches gears into a smoking jam section with bluesy harmonica from Amby and the orchestra coming in to make it sound like a James Bond flick.
The Bond vibe feels thematic when Joey introduces the arch villain, saying the next song is about Elon Musk and cusses him. “We decided billionaires shouldn’t exist,” Stu adds as the group launches into heavy metal banger “Mars for the Rich” from 2019’s Infest the Rats Nest. Musk has been a long-time target of the band, and the song details why with its hard-hitting critique of how Musk’s vision to colonize Mars mirrors the class war on Earth, since only the very rich will be able to afford the trip to escape the climate change meltdown here on Earth.
The synthesis of the song’s metal power with orchestral grandeur is stunning, including a killer bass solo. The orchestral metal mayhem continues to surge on “Dragon” from 2023’s Petrodragonic Apocalypse, as the set continues to be a mesmerizing spectacle.
The show concludes with the dynamic “Iron Lung” from 2022’s Ice, Death, Planets, Lungs, Mushroom and Lava. The jazzy, jammy number benefits from the orchestra’s sax player, adding a neo-noir vibe to the performance for another majestic Hollywood moment. Cavs’ drumming is a tour de force, moving from jazzy flourishes to an intense double-time jam sequence with a sax solo and dramatic accents from the strings. The ambitious arrangement conjures what feels like a pinnacle in sonic achievement, much to the audience’s delight. What a night in Hollywood!
Monday, 11 August @ the Rady Shell – San Diego
The Hollywood Bowl show had a climactic vibe that made it feel like it could be the end of the tour, as in 2023, yet the orchestra run includes one more show the next day in San Diego. It’s an excellent opportunity to catch King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard at another special location, with the Rady Shell being another world-class venue that fans discovered when the band played an acoustic show there on their 2024 fall tour.
It’s a beautiful day in “America’s Finest City”, a nickname that’s hard to argue on a balmy, breezy afternoon like this one. Some fans will gather at a “Weirdo Swarm” meetup at Fall Brewing in the city’s hip North Park neighborhood. Others are drawn to Ocean Beach, easily one of the most chill neighborhoods in America, where Kilowatt Brewing features tasty brews, boozy slushies, fun games, and psychedelic black light art that includes flying saucers and aliens.
San Diego may be considered a “B” market in comparison to Los Angeles and San Francisco, but it’s an excellent place for a rock ‘n’ roll tour stop. That raises the question of why so many bands skip San Diego, but King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard clearly know better.
The Rady Shell’s unique egg-like shape makes it seem like an alien mothership of some sort has landed on the San Diego waterfront, generating a surreal vibe. The line for the merch stand is extremely long before, during, and after the show, as fans again seek the coveted limited edition show print from Jason Galea. The San Diego Symphony Orchestra step in for the Los Angeles Philharmonic, with Sarah Hicks again conducting.
In contrast to King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard’s tours of recent years, the setlist is mostly the same due to the time and energy needed to put together the orchestra arrangements for the songs. But the vibe seems a little more happening early on, as there are no dinner tables in the concert area like at the Hollywood Bowl. Many attendees are no doubt thrilled to catch King Gizzard here again on a perfect summer night, after last year’s show on 2 November was partially dampened by a rare instance of cold rain during some of the show.
The Rady Shell is also a little more intimate than the Hollywood Bowl, with the venue being roughly half the size. There’s more energy when “Phantom Island” kicks off the set, setting the tone for the protagonist’s mystical journey to seek an island seen only in a dream. “Spacesick” stands out again as the side B opener, which also synchronizes with the setting sun and light show coming alive. Stu and Cookie both play acoustic guitars on “Aerodynamic”, which seems to hit with more impact here on the edge of the San Diego Bay when Amby sings, “This ship is a shipwreck” and Joey sings about being stranded at sea and watching the waves roll by.
“Sea of Doubt” is another song that benefits from the waterfront setting, especially when Stu sings of swimming “out of the sea of doubt” before concluding the song with “We stand on solid ground, We take the time to look around, The lightness of the air lifts me, A breeze of serenity, We’re in the meadow of our minds, basking in its delight.” There is indeed an uplifting lightness of air and a breezy serenity that feels great here at the Rady Shell. The song also seems to catch more of a groove, with Cavs throwing down a beat toward the end that feels similar to the Beatles’ classic “Tomorrow Never Knows”.
“Grow Wings and Fly” is another majestic moment, a song that feels like an instant classic that could conjure many more such moments on tours to come. The swirling string parts make the song feel like alchemical sonic magic, and the San Diego crowd is loving it. The orchestra break opens up the set for another jam, and this is where King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard take the chance to mix things up, with a tight jam that features teases of “Wah Wah” and “Witchcraft” before throwing down the heavy-hitting “Motor Spirit” fromPetrodragonic Apocalypse. Stu and Joey go off here with face-melting guitar riffage as San Diego rocks out.
The back half of the set features the same six songs as throughout the orchestral run, yet it remains a treat to hear these sensational songs enhanced by an orchestra. There are also plenty of local fans present who weren’t at the Hollywood Bowl, so there’s a tangible sense of fresh excitement with a contagious effect. “Iron Lung” is pure triumph again, with the jazzy jamming generating a mystical vibe. Stu cuts loose, and it’s a stunning moment to see him wailing on the final jam in truly incendiary fashion, fitting for the town where legendary fictional band Stillwater’s guitar sound was deemed “incendiary” upon their visit to the San Diego Sports Arena.
King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard have conquered the USA again. The summer 2025 tour makes it feel like the cavalry has arrived in the cultural civil war taking place, providing a welcome spiritual boost for the Rebel Alliance. The only question is what comes next for these defiant sonic wizards in 2026. Another concept album that functions as musical anthropology while expanding the Gizzverse? The return of beloved cyborg Han-Tyumi? Deeper psychedelic explorations?
The band have been on quite a roll over the past four years, suggesting the future remains bright even as the world devolves toward a dystopian meltdown. Yet the path ahead remains an unknown highway, with alternate realities splitting off in every direction.
