King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard returned to Forest Hills Stadium again this year for three nights of metal, rock, and rave.

Thursday, August 20 night began with torrential rain, which blew along the floor in waves. Then came the shelter in place order. Everyone was led back down under the bowl, where, surprisingly, the food and drink vendors were still coming around. Then there was the tornado warning. It wasn’t until 7:15 that the audience was allowed to return to their seats, where a foot of water now filled the first row of bleachers.

Amazingly, the audience only grew in that time, and King Gizzard rewarded their most resilient fans with an extra weird (though shortened) setlist, including metal and rock arrangements of tracks from their album The Silver Chord. The band truly hit their stride halfway through the show, with “The Lord of Lightning” (as lightning struck) and an extended version of “Straws in the Wind.”

Night two carried on that momentum with a much jazzier, rolling tone. It was clear that the technical difficulties of night one had been lifted and the band was now, quite literally, at full power. It’s difficult to pick highlights when the band plays “Ataraxia,” “Ice V,” and “Altered Beast I + II” in just 30 minutes of a 2 hour show. That said, “Gliese 710” was the clear standout in a perfect set. This was King Gizzard at their best, psych rock with other genres bleeding in at the edges.

The band’s third night was filled with electronic madness courtesy of the band’s increased skills at their massive table of analog synthesizers. Their setup consisted of the band manning separate segments of their complicated rig with drummer, Michael Cavanaugh, resting behind the group on his kit. The band spent the first two hours, shuffling through covers of older tracks. The usually whimsical, “Sense,” became a direct, synthetic journey. Even their metal songs got a new paint job with the song “Perihelion” becoming a bouncy rave jam.

After a few hours of priming the audience, the last hour of the night was dedicated to their newest album, Alien Metal. Deep bass and intense percussion filled the stadium as “Level 5” kicked things off. Their jams were sprawling, massive and exciting. The build ups and subsequent drops drove the crowd to madness with the general intensity reaching a fever pitch for the rest of the evening.

King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard – Forest Hills Stadium, Queens, NY

source: kglw.net

Thursday, August 20 Setlist: Extinction, Converge, Witchcraft, Inner Cell, Loyalty, Horology, Evil Death Roll, Theia, The Reticent Raconteur, The Lord of Lightning, I’m In Your Mind, I’m Not In Your Mind, Cellophane, The Balrog, Straws In The Wind, Open Water, Float Along – Fill Your Lungs

Friday, August 21 Setlist: Rattlesnake, Static Electricity, East West Link, Ataraxia, Ice V, Altered Beast I, Alter Me I, Altered Beast II, Gliese 710, Hot Water, Kepler-22b, Shanghai, Cyboogie, Venusian 1, Venusian 2, Gilgamesh, Gila Monster

Saturday, August 22 Setlist: Sense, Slow Jam 1, Perihelion, Muddy Water, The Bitter Boogie, Level 5, Rapid Alpha Decay, Alien Metal