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petrodragonicapocalypse · 6 months ago

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GizzMay 2024 !

(a retrospective tour diary by me)

🦎✈️🎵

king gizzard & the lizard wizard announced their 2024 world tour last november with a promise to "get woke, freak out the right wingers and love each other", so i, a like any normal person working a minimum wage job, immediately bought tickets to six shows.

read about the best 2 weeks of my life here (if you wish)

part 1: hamburg & amsterdam

after half a year of planning, studying google maps, scouring airbnb for cheap rooms and wincing at the cost of transport, me and my lovely girlfriend bennie (the person who first showed me polygondwanaland back in 2019) set off on our long-awaited trip on tuesday 21st may 2024. we were going to follow the band for six shows over two weeks across four countries. neither of us had ever done something like this before.

to kick off the trip, we flew from bristol airport to amsterdam, where we were due to transfer to a flight to hamburg. typically, a thunderstorm meant our hamburg flight was cancelled, so they sent us on a detour to vienna. we ate a slice of airport pizza in austria, tried not to panic and finally rolled into hamburg at around 10pm.

hamburg

the next day (22nd may) was our first gig. with around 4000 people and a 3 hour marathon set, this was gonna be the biggest and longest show of our section of the tour, and the only outdoor one. we queued from 1.30pm (early for europeans!) outside the venue, stadtpark arena. soon, the eerie sound of synths began emanating from inside the gates, then morphing into a soundcheck for the never-played-live-before silver cord, vocoder and all, and excitement amongst the fans was stoked. the weather forecast looked ominous, but spirits were high.

at around 3pm, it started raining. it poured relentlessly on the growing line of gizzheads in ponchos clutching poster tubes and beers for 3 hours until the venue gates finally opened. we ran to the front. we were hyped. we stood for another hour while rain and mist blew around the arena and thousands of fans filed in.

finally, just as the rain died down a bit, king gizz ran out onto the stage. the slightly delirious state induced by 2 oreos for dinner and freezing my tits off for 4 hours was almost as good as drugs. all thought of the water running down my back and legs disappeared. fuck yeah!!! king gizzard!!!

the rain soon came back in full force but we didn't care. float along fill your lungs was a fantastic opener, followed by banger after banger: a nonagon suite, work this time and iron lung (with ambrose braving the weather and emerging out onto the exposed walkway in the chorus to splash around in the puddles), to name a few. then, out rolled the highly anticipated new synth table and the boys launched into the 27 minute long live debut of the silver cord.

personally i was full of joy, whimsy and love for techno so naturally i thought this was fucking awesome, but reactions from the crowd (and from the "online community" a.k.a. redditors... haha) seem to have been mixed. it was 27 minutes long, we were cold and wet, the sound was a bit dodgy, etc etc. whatever. i was vibing extremely hard.

however, any dampened spirits were very quickly raised again by the epic 7 song metal run that ended the show. the crowd went wild - turns out moshing does wonders for the cold. i heard what ended up being 2 of my all time favourite live gizz songs for the first time: organ farmer and motor spirit. it kicked ass.

we made it back to the hotel soaking wet and probably bordering on hypothermic after over 7 hours in the rain. had a hot shower and then spent the rest of the evening attempting to dry our clothes and shoes with a hairdryer before our flight the next day. did not smell good.

🦎✈️🎵

amsterdam

we flew from hamburg to amsterdam schiphol on 23rd may, with at least 5 other gizzheads (easily recognisable by their poster tubes and t shirts) dotted around the plane. we arrived to a beautiful city on a beautiful sunny day and (obviously) headed directly to the weed shops. edibles legally purchased, we dumped our stuff at the airbnb and took the train to the venue: AFAS live.

waiting in the line, it was easy to spot who'd been at stadtpark the night before from the mud on their shoes. but the weather that afternoon was sunny and warm and the line was happily buzzing. we met some cool people including a person in a long yellow coat who was drawing huge oil pastel posters for the show - rad as hell and an iconic figure of the tour (i believe they gave the band a poster that night!).

once in the venue, we settled down by the barrier (it's always worth the wait!) and chatted with some swedish guys and a friendly australian, far from home. the support band was dr sure's unusual practice, a lively melbourne based punk act with a wild-haired wild-eyed frontman, filling in last minute for grace cummings who had to cancel several shows due to illness. they put on a great show, during which stu and lucas surreptitiously appeared to watch the band from the wings a few feet away from us. we gave them a wave, and stu shot us a wink.

the setlist that night was fucking incredible. gizzard opened with the mighty crumbling castle, a song that i'd been dreaming of seeing live ever since i first heard it 5 years ago. it was better than i ever could have hoped, with the weed brownie kicking in and the stage lights becoming kaleidoscopic. the band was energetic and the vibes were electric. stu overshot a high kick, fell on his ass and managed to hop back up without missing a lyric. self immolate - dragon - flamethrower - gila monster was unreal. joey used a quiet moment in pleura to stage-whisper "free palestine!", eliciting cheers.

somewhat hilariously in retrospect, during the hypnotic drone of rattlesnake me and my girlfriend both suddenly realised we were way too high. i have vague memories of the second half of the gig, including the han tyumi suite (REALLY REALLY MAD I MOSTLY MISSED THAT) and an honest-to-god terrifying moment in which joey and ambrose walked to the front of the stage, crouched down and stared directly at us for what felt like an undefinable amount of time. ultimately though - despite our tenuous grip on reality and the fact that we somehow got lost in a train station for an hour on the way home and spent the next full day in a semi-stoned stupor - it was a fantastic show. lesson learned: the dutch do not play about their space cakes.

after a day of recovery (let's just skip over that) and a lovely morning spent wandering around amsterdam taking in the sights, bennie and i made our way back to the airport to say our goodbyes. she was going home and i was travelling on to hit up the northern UK shows. despite knowing we'd see each other again in a week for the acoustic UK finale show in brighton, it was weirdly emotional. i was a little nervous about travelling alone, but excited.

🦎✈️🎵

(end of part 1, part 2 coming soon!)

#writing this mostly for meee but if anyone wants to read it thatd be lovely :]#parts 2 and 3 will be up soon (whenever i finish writing them) and lowkey they are way more exciting than this one bahahaha #still such funnn #king gizzard & the lizard wizard #king gizzard #kglw #kgatlw #tour diary #my posts

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han-tyumi-apologist · 1 month ago

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Flight b741

I know I said that I'm working through the live albums, and I am! But because this tour is debuting Flight b741, and thus prominently features most of the tracks from this record, I figure that I ought to lay out my thoughts on these songs so I don't repeat how much I fucking love Le Risque every time they play it.

I'll start with an anecdote. I was putting on my music as I got in my car and spotify dutifully reported a new Gizz single to me. A new single! I was starting to think that they might give themselves a fucking break in 2024, (if you can call a world tour a break) but we are talking about the band that has released 5 albums in a year - twice.

So I put on Le Risque. I'm in for a pretty boring commute and I preemptively put it on repeat. I find that I don't really absorb a song until about the 60-70th listen. Which is why I'm in the -05% of listeners on spotify

Here's a posthumous recreation of my live reaction:

Oh hey that's Joey!

This really goes oh fuck yeah drum break down

I love the lyric flow in this, this is super fresh you can really feel

Ahahahhaha alright!

-- hey wait that's Cavs?

I'm weak as piss no risk No fire, no flame I’m always feelin the same The risk, it sits At the tip of my tiny prick

*chokes*

No style no ease I'm a pathetic forgotten steaze

I don't think I've heard anyone say steaze in like ever none of the people I know ever know what I'm talking about when I say it hearing it in a song is wild

Its so cool hearing other band members on the mic and what a good so-

HELLOOOOOOOOOOO EVIL KNEEVIILLL!

FUCK YEAH *inadvertently accelerates the car*

Running through the red light~~

I couldn't possibly have timed it better, but I did (accidentally!) run a red light exactly on that line. I'm sorry officer but the music is just too fucking good.

I already liked the song before I ran a red light on the song's advice, but it was going to be an instant favorite for me regardless. Can we talk about why the title of the song is titled in French but not once is that ever referenced or actually pronounced? By talk about I mean that’s it that’s all I have to say about it I just think its really funny.

Le Risque I think is a really good example of the band's understanding of DYNAMICS. It's helped by the rotation of vocalists, but the pacing of the song keeps you hooked the entire time. It's got high highs (HELLOOOOOOOOOO) , and the lows build into crescendos that are to die for. Stu's verse at the end is probably the best example. The social engineering is perfect - everyone else's verses come first. If you have a passing familiarity with Gizz you probably were expecting Stu's voice, and probably weren't expecting an even split collaboration on lead vocals. It's not a desperate suspense, I don't think I was really consciously aware of the set up until about the 24th listen. At the end of Ambrose's verse, when everything quiet's down and it's just Lucas keeping time on the bass, giving you enough time to wonder if Stu's even on this track, you get the pay off. The instrumentals build back up in accordance with the escalation of the lyrical content and the song's energy snowballs into a hard stop .

You know how your teachers have probably told you that you should always restate your thesis at the conclusion of your paper?

Adrenaline my dearest friend It's you and me until the end!

I didn’t notice until writing this actually but it's quite satisfying for Le Risque to end on the words 'the end'. I have no idea how intentional this was (they're a smart bunch it probably was intentional) Regardless, it's really sexy. It puts a bow on the song and ships it to your door. I don't think Le Risque is a ballad, but it's definitely a progressive work and tying it up neatly allows Flight b741 to start on its own terms. I'm a huge sucker for tracks that they include the tap off into the next song. It makes for a satisfying listening experience, allowing the tracks to flow continuously, but still giving them room to breathe.

Oh right this is supposed to be a review of the whole album. Lmao.

To be completely honest, I was initially a little disappointed in the next two singles. (Hog Calling Contest and Field of Vision) I didn't dislike them, but at the time I didn't see how they all fit together. I think that releasing them in reverse order that they appear on the album is what made me think that. They're consecutive tracks on the album, so it was difficult to see the flow between them I'd be interested to know why those were the tracks that they decided to release first. I think that Flight b741, which is the title track, does a better job of setting the tone and theming of the album than Field of Vision, which is a hoot and a half to be sure! It's a just little esoteric, which, actually isn't all that surprising. It's a self reflection on their career, with the cameo mention of their former tour manager Jess Lewis and lyrics such as:

All the blood, the sweat, the tears that we put into everything Year after year we're still here And Still running blind after so many years Surely something's gotta give?

At least in my own reading, it seems like Field of Vision is sort of the personal thesis of the album. After years and years of pouring everything into their work for other people, fuck it. Silly billy time.

You know actually I've talked myself into a different opinion I think it's baller to tease your album with this kind of self reflection and honesty. Only real critique I have of this track is that what I thought were monkey noises and then later realized were meant to be pig squeals at the end are definitely a choice. It makes sense as a tease for Hog Calling Contest, but they were released in reverse order, so it sort of sounds like it's supposed to flow into a different track.

Hearing them live is what really reshaped my perspective on the tracks. Before hearing them live, I felt pretty medium about most of them. Again, not that I disliked them, but I hadn't quite gotten the vision yet.

But these songs are electric performed live, and I don't just mean the instruments they're played on. The energy that they bring to these performances just is not matched in the studio master, and in a live performance it's easy to see exactly how collaborative this album is. I got to hear the live debut of Antarctica, Raw Feel and Sad Pilot at the DC show. While I had been really hoping to hear Le Risque live, I did a full 180 on my opinion of Antarctica. This isn't a live show review so I'll try to be brief but I do love the way that their longer ballads (Dripping Tap, Iron Lung) have become vessels for little teases and allusions to other tracks of theirs. I had a friend who was expressed disappointment that Gizz was becoming "just a jam band", and my sister in christ they always have been - it's just a much more developed and intentional version of what we saw as early as Quarters! Haha, Dripping Tap is 18 minutes long, but catching a little whiff of Antarctica (I know this aint gonna go well, we've got a snowball's chance in hell) was enthralling. It forced me to pay more attention to the lyrics than I had on my initial listens (it's a killer line lets be real) and also reignited my interest in the middle of what is admittedly, a rather long track.

Luckily for me, and also everyone with more than a passing interest in KGLW, they're releasing ALL of the recordings from this tour, meaning that you can hear the live versions of all of these songs easily. Here are some of my favorites so far : https://open.spotify.com/playlist/0sziYShtr5JkY68b3gZls6?si=45cd8e34e6d94c76

My current affinity for this album is in no small part due to their live shows, and the little personality moments that these tracks brought out on stage. ("We saw the real version of this song earlier today, a seagul-" "DON’T give it away" "This song is called.. Seagull :} ") These moments would happen regardless, but at least compared to my experience with the 2022 tour (following the release marathon of IDPLMLMAO, Laminated Denim and Changes) it seemed to me like they had a lot more fun playing the album about their collaboration as a group than when they were juggling a set list that included 3 new releases. It was a different time.

I want to mention Daily Blues as well. People who think that Gizz music doesn't have politics in it are1. just stupid or 2. have only listened to like, Rattlesnake, but most of their commentary up to this point has been about the environment. I think that the message of Daily Blues is really, really important.

All the bigots go get fucked Give us back our free love Faith only binds you to ideology That aint peace and that aint free

That bangs. I didn't suspect that the six gay guys band was going to silently allow bigots to integrate into their fanbase, but hearing it made explicit is definitely a comfort. At both shows I've been to, they started the concert with a call to be kind and look out for each other. Putting the same sort of messages on their music makes it clear that these aren't just platitudes. Their care for their audience is something I really respect about them.

That being said, to me, the lines

What you gotta do is Find that person you hate Grab em by the hand, look em in the eyes And say "I love you"

Have always sounded a little naive? It's 'love thy neighbor' in blues rock, which to be super clear is a good and important message to send. Maybe it's that musically it's one of my least favorite tracks, maybe it's that I'm just too jaded to feel like love thy neighbor is effective against true dyed in the wool bigots. Again, they aren't wrong, and ultimately I do agree with the message, but I feel the same sort of cynicism that I feel when Christians say it, although strangely I think that they're using love thy neighbor in a way that's much closer to Jesus' original message than the way many Christians use it today. I also definitely thought the line was "grab em by the head" which is definitely an… intense call to action. This may have informed my initial opinion.

The sign off at the end of Daily Blues is really sweet.

Thanks for flying We've been your pilots Lukey Joe Cookie Amby Cavs Stuie

It wraps up the album nicely, and reemphasizes that this album is very much about the people writing it. I don't think that there are any other tracks where any of the band members are mentioned by name, so it seems fitting that the first time this happens it's all of them at once. While they're known for their conceptual work, it's been said in interviews that that era was largely Stu's vision. The past few years have seen more and more creative input from other members of the band, culminating in this album. As a long time listener, it's a joy to see the joy they bring to Flight b741.

#flight b741 #allisknown #kglw tour 2024 #kglw #king gizzard and the lizard wizard

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