King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard, Tropical Fuck Storm @ The Gov, Adelaide 24/11/2018
King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard rule! It was a full house at The Gov which had been a sell out for quite some time and this pairing of King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard with Tropical Fuck Storm almost seemed like a match made in heaven. Adelaide was lucky to still have both bands come to our fair city as the traditional Gizzfest format did not come to town this time round.
Tropical Fuckstorm are in short bloody awesome fresh off the back of a US tour and enjoying some well deserved success. It was definitely worth venturing in early despite the shitty weather again this week to see them play tunes from their brilliant debut album A Laughing Death In Meatspace. The band features partners from The Drones in Gareth Liddiard (coincidentally his birthday as well) and Fiona Kitschin, Erica Dunn and Lauren Hammel. What I love is the grit, the rawness and the intensity in which they play. There’s definitely something quite engaging about how they play that demands attention.
The are so many great moments from the set including the likes of You Let Me Tyres Down and Antimatter Animals. As far as covers go they tear Lose The Baby a new one and Rubber Bullies was brilliant. The highlight for me was set closer was the TFS touch up of a Drones classic Baby Squared. Hot damn! There is no doubt that Liddiard was found something with his new band and watch this space as there will be plenty of good things to come from this band in future.
I love King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard! I just love saying the name! This band don’t do anything by halves and have garnered a reputation based on a prolific recording output clocking up some thirteen albums and vinyl that is highly collectable and well sort after. Their frenetic and energetic live performance is something else as well and a site to behold.
The band are firing and rock straight in to Rattlesnake in a set that darts in and out of their thirteen album discography. Blink and you would have missed classics that seamlessly go from one song to the next. The musicianship and talent is well beyond their years making for one hell of a talented bunch and Stu Mackenzie who fronts this band is an absolute delight to watch. The music and the projections running behind the band throughout the set is a perfect backdrop adding to the psychedelic experience. Favourites early in the set for me included the likes of The Balrog, Stressin’, Dead-Beat and Muckracker. There was a brief moment of reflection from Mackenzie saying the last time they were here was supporting The Drones and then asking how does this shit go before knocking out Crumbling Castle.
The fans were lapping it up with big cheers reserved for the likes of Deserted Dunes Welcome Weary Feet, Let Me Mend The Past and The River. The best was saved for last wheeling out the big guns from their break out album Nonagon Infinity with Wah Wah, Road Train, Robot Stop and Gamma Knife bringing their set home. Their set finished on The Bitter Boogie from Paper Mache Dream Ballooon and when you are that good you don’t need an encore. The crowd chanted for one more but as the house lights came back on that was it until next time. Great show and let’s hope next time that Gizzfest came make a return to Adelaide.
Live Review by Rob Lyon