King Gizzard concert review at the Paramount

Last Thursday King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard finally returned to Seattle to take over the gorgeous Paramount theater. After multiple canceled shows spanning back to April 2020, ticket holders for all the previous shows scheduled at The Moore were able to bask in the glory of the Gizz.

Hailing from Melbourne, the Australian psychedelic rock band have been absolutely prolific in the music world releasing multiple albums a year spanning many different genres. Utilizing uncommon techniques such as microtones, polyrhythms, and various lesser used instruments in rock music, King Gizzard is truly a musician’s band.

In Seattle, the band played a set featuring songs from six of their studio albums. Opening with “Pleura,” off of 2021’s L.W., the tone was set for the rest of the evening with dim lighting and the group backlit by a massive screen featuring colorful distorted visuals.  The band continued their set with songs off of Flying Microtonal Banana, K.G., Omnium Gatherum, and Infest the Rat’s Nest.

Fans of the band were stoked to eat up the groovy jams the band was serving.  At any given moment crowd surfers could be seen gliding along the top of the standing room audience, letting the energetic psychedelic tunes wash over them.  About midway through the set, after playing “Superbug”, one of the band members recalled how they had joked when writing it about a superbug overtaking the world, six months later Covid happened.

King Gizzard ended their set of released music with “Gaia” featuring an insane extended drum solo. They then announced that the following day their new album Ice, Death, Planets, Lungs, Mushrooms and Lava would be released, and they would now play three songs off of it. The band went on to play “Ice V,” “Iron Lung,” and “Magma,” much to the crowd’s enjoyment.

In true Gizzard fashion, the band still has two more albums set to release this month, Laminated Denim, on Oct. 12, and Changes, on Oct. 28.  In addition, the band stopped by Seattle’s favorite radio station KEXP the day after their concert to record an in-studio session that is sure to deliver.

Words and photos: Joshua Simons @groteskanimal