Big things are happening in the world of King Gizzard. Launching three characteristically different full-length studio albums in just over 12 months and playing to countless fans at packed-out shows, their achievements thus far have been made so much sweeter in being awarded the inaugural Global Music Grant ($50,000 worth) by the Australian Independent Record Labels Association this month.
Riding high on this recent success, the big news gave an added element of excitement to the first leg of their latest album launch Float Along – Fill Your Lungs.
Kicking off the national tour in their adopted hometown, it was an all-local line-up, with Hierophants opening for the night. The stage’s shabby beige curtained backdrop gave the room a cosy bedroom-jam feel, the perfect setting for Heirophants’ scuzzy, riff-driven punk rock.
Following in a similar vein was Living Eyes who served up plenty of 60s nostalgia with fast paced and jangly tunes. Their high energy remained even when faced with some technical issues mid-way through, planting some good vibes in the crowd before the headline act.
As if to say “last week on King Gizzard” and bookending their previous release Eyes Like The Sky, King Gizzard opened with the Spaghetti Western sounds of “The Raid.” Its quick flurried beats, echoing whoops and anticipatory guitar set up the scene and cleared space in punters’ minds for what was to come.
Flowing seamlessly in was the opening twangy guitar for “Head On/Pill”, stimulating a restless excitement in the crowd, those not already involved in the mosh pit rushing forwards as the full instrumental kicked in. The 16-minute overture, and arguable hero of Float Along was an intelligent musical journey, seemingly filled with layers and layers of sound that bent and contracted.
Already, several audience members were crowd-surfing on their psychedelic highs, the rest bouncing in fast forward motion as the pace quickened mid-way through the song. Stu Mackenzie and Joe Walker’s ooh-ing coloured the chaos and frenzy of the piece, before coming to the slowed down end-of-the storm where “Head On/Pill” returns to itself and references its opening – a brief comedown before launching into the more straightforward but still expansive “God Is Calling Me Back Home.”
The set more or less followed the ordering of the actual album peppered with a few diversions from the record. Float Along has a focus on lengthy pieces, so as expected the set was more an interesting and vivid soundscape rather than cherry picking from their already extensive repertoire.
There was a soulful edge when Ambrose Kenny-Smith took the vocals, his nasal screech and reverb giving “Let Me Mend The Past” the heart-wrenching impact that it deserved. The sharing of vocals and sense of collaboration between the six members on stage was testament to the variety and quality of that they have achieved in their work so far.
King Gizzard finished out with “Sea of trees” from debut 12 Bar Bruise, the fast-paced number driving momentum to the very end and starring Kenny-Smith’s stellar harmonica work. While at its conclusion all band members had left, the stage was still glowing, reverb echoing in everyone’s ears, a possible encore on the horizon.
While the crowd certainly wanted more, the curtains closed defiantly, a tidy finish to what had been an extremely captivating set.
