KINGz
“I’m gonna go to that King Buzzo show in Madison tonight”, I tell my wife. “Have fun”, she says, totally thinking I’m talking about King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard. There could be only one Queen, yet there’s no successful standalone ‘King’ thus far, just a million separate King Somethings. As an artist, when you call yourself ‘King’ something it has to be ironic in some sense, or at least you want people to THINK that. However, when you’ve been calling someone Buzz Osborne your whole life and then he decides it’s got to be King Buzzo from now on, he’s got to accept that some of his elder fans might forget about the memo if they ever got it in the first place.
Still, ‘King Buzzo’ as a moniker precedes ‘King Gizzard’ and admittedly is more likely to be heard-of than ‘King Dunn’, the actual name of the group who headlined High Noon Saloon a couple two tree Wednesdays ago. I got a shirt I tell you, it says “King Dunn” right on it, plus a ten-inch record. There’s no King Dunn material streaming so far, but Trevor Dunn has worked with Buzzo on and off for over a decade both as part of the Melvins and on Buzzo’s solo releases. As part of the core trio of artists who make up Mr. Bungle, Dunn’s reputation takes a back seat to Mike Patton the virtual celebrity and Trey Spruance of the mighty Secret Chiefs 3, but only to the world at large. In jazz circles, metal circles, any type of circles where people are paying close attention, Dunn’s reputation only grows as the years go on. He might rarely put his name on the marquee, but he’s no less essential to the King Dunn magic than his more spotlit partner.
Opening was JD Pinkus who despite having just released one of my favorite albums of the year so far (GROW A PEAR) played mostly if not all old stuff with just a banjo and some pedals and knobs. And of course a giant cardboard-cutout pear with odd videos projected onto it. He told terrible jokes between songs and generally ingratiated himself in a carny-on-acid sorta way. Shortly after he finished, out came Osborne & Dunn, acoustic guitar and upright bass. If you’ve heard Buzzo’s solo album GIFT OF SACRIFICE you’d know basically what to expect, only the newer songs in their repertoire are way more interesting, less Melvins-turned-down. Trevor’s noisy and experimental any chance he gets; this has clearly loosened Buzz up as well, and the result was something you’d more likely see at Big Ears than a dingy rock club. It also featured more of Dunn singing than any other project he’s been involved with, I think; he and Buzzo belting out the Dicks’ “Sidewalk Begging” in harmony was sick! And they were even selling a floppy 7” of that cover at the merch table. It was a dreamy night all around.
“Well if I’d KNOWN you were talking about Buzz I probably would’ve gone!” says my wife, surely in jest. Complicating matters of course is that Gizzard has been on the brain of late. New album—their first one of the year! Slackers—plus I just interviewed Stu Mackenzie, the band’s de facto main man, for WMSE (to hear the interview, go here: https://wmse.org/program/midnight-radio/ and select 8/20/2024 from the dropdown menu), and now our friend was coming to visit from Arizona in order to catch the Lizard Wizard shows in Chicago and Milwaukee. I haven’t even mentioned the upcoming King Diamond Milwaukee show yet but at least there are no z’s in HIS name.
Ticketmaster called me twice leading up to the Northerly Island show on Sunday, warning of a sellout crowd and potential traffic problems. We needn’t have worried; it was a total breeze, especially for Chicago on a holiday weekend, and besides, the lawn wasn’t even open. The show was announced about a year in advance as a “3 Hour Marathon Set”, which Stu had assured me during the interview wasn’t THAT much longer than what their typical sets were these days. Still, after last year’s epic three-night stand at the Salt Shed, anticipation was high for this one-off event. I’m not sure we can start taking yearly King Gizzard U.S. tours for granted just yet; somehow they manage to circumvent all the difficulties European bands keep struggling to overcome in touring here, though, and we’re all reaping the rewards.
After a fantastic opening set by Geese, KGLW emerged and played the first five songs off their breakthrough album, 2016’s NONAGON INFINITY. Despite being a vital and rising artist, they’re not one of those bands who trot out eight songs from the new album every night. They simply have way too many interests, too big of a repertoire, which made it all the more surprising that they’d slip into somewhat of an old mode and play a whole album side like that. It’s a sure way to win over pretty much the whole crowd, though, and there were all kinds of teases and improv within the interconnected suite that superfans would of course be notating in detail.
I’m not sure if Gizzard fans have agreed on a demonym yet—can’t go with ‘Kingheads’ after all, and the other components of the name pose their own potential annoyances. Whatever you call them, they’re already building annotated setlist databases and jam charts and all the basic stuff Phishheads dreamed up decades ago. KGLW would wisely resist the term ‘jamband’, yet for a band that wants to reach the greatest possible heights of musical expression, improvisation is the final frontier; it’s not the be-all and end-all of KGLW nor the only way to achieve a peak musical experience by any means, yet NOT jamming would only get this band so far; they’re too ambitious, too talented and too tuned-into each other. Fans are learning they can follow Gizz from town to town and experience something completely different night after night; you can’t blame the band for backing into a strategy that normally only jambands can pull off.
Jambands, however, usually manage it by being sloppy, playing lots of covers as well as terrible originals, generally annoying and/or boring first-time and casual listeners to death. Only once you’ve IMMERSED yourself in their mythology, say their fans, can you appreciate what they’re even DOING. And it’s true; even though I don’t like most jambands, I understand the rewards of fandom, that the risks taken in the live setting lead inevitably to some crappy music but also the highest of highs. I’m just getting a little impatient with KGLW, I need to see a subpar show, I need to know what that’s like, because right now it seems like they kill every night. I’m getting the high highs; do they ever fall flat? They have six guys onstage yet they never sound sloppy. They don’t play covers. It’s not like all their songs are great, but by and large they only play the better ones live.
For three hours straight in Chicago I couldn’t imagine anyone in that crowd being bored. These guys don’t even have ballads; there’s no setbreak, no encores, hardly even any lulls in energy, you can’t use the facilities without fear of missing something. There were three selections from the new FLIGHT b741 and selections from nine other albums before they wound up doing the entire “Han-Tyumi And The Murder Of The Universe” suite. When I first heard this suite in 2017 I’d already been enjoying the previous couple King Gizzard albums, but this piece opened my eyes a bit about the scope of what this band could do, the potential peeking through the fable about the cyborg who wishes to barf. This wasn’t just some talented psych-rock band doing gimmicky one-off ‘exercise’ albums, this was a whole bunch of different impulses that were going to eventually Voltron into something huge.
The Chicago show felt like that. After the MURDER OF THE UNIVERSE bit came the rave-ish portion, which I think is becoming a part of every show. Everybody except the drummer (Michael “Cavs” Cavanagh) and bassist (Lucas Harwood—I think; most of these guys play multiple instruments including horns and um not nearly enough flute for my tastes) huddle over a gadgetry table and go at it with material primarily from last year’s THE SILVER CORD album. It’s not easy synching a live drummer with techno beats and this was where I found Cavs more talented than I’d realized before simply on a scale of adaptability; if there was ever a rhythmic discrepancy he adjusted with remarkable awareness. It never got super complex but it was easy to get lost in this music, a highlight amidst a show that was practically all highlights.
The dance party went on for over a half hour before suddenly their scheduled three hours were up. It did not seem like anybody was quite ready for this night to be done, so Stu got a quick okay from the powers that be and went ahead with a song they’d never played in Chicago before, “Head On/Pill”, for another 17 minutes or so before finally calling it a night. I couldn’t say what the ‘stuff of legend’ is for this band, or for live music in this day and age; all I know is in terms of musical growth and dexterity and hunger, this band reminded me very much of c. 1993-94 Phish, and I could see the whole world spread out in front of them.
There’s a particular elation from this kind of show as you walk back to your car; the crowd had that glow. I can only hope Alpine Valley holds on as a venue long enough for King Gizzard to get big enough to play there. They would have no trouble commanding it now, but there will have to be a turning point where normal people are willing to take a band with that name seriously. And they’d have to WANT to get that big, of course. And yeah, ideally let’s not have a massive horde of hippies jump onboard and ruin it, but hippies these days are unfortunately able to withstand an awful lot of genres. Thanks Umphrey’s!
The Lizard Wizard took Labor Day off and then played Minneapolis Tuesday, where they reportedly indulged their hip-hop impulses; not that I begrudge them those but I don’t mind having missed one of those interludes, they’re like vacuum solos. I already had the feeling that Milwaukee would just be whipped cream on top of the ‘marathon’ show; that was stadium-size rawk energy, you can’t compress that into the 4,000-seat Miller High Life Theatre. Except seeing them come onstage Wednesday night (after Geese once again opened, wiping away all memories of my last time here, seeing Goose (https://milwaukeerecord.com/music/goose-fly-into-miller-high-life-theatre-for-night-of-polished-groove-rock/)) and immediately start jamming out the first tune, “The Dripping Tap”, they reminded me even MORE of cusp-of-greatness Phish. Fierce energy, so much generated from unscripted interplay; as a Phishhead I swear I’m not trying to steal this band, I’m merely pointing out that occasionally, when they want to, KGLW are now one of those few rock bands who approach a similar kind of excitement in terms of group improv. They already go further, and with greater finesse, than most jambands ever go.
What it all boils down to for me, though, is unpredictability. That was the issue when I first saw this band live, back in 2018. They played all those really good songs really well and…that was even less than my expectations. Based on how many sensible people I knew who’d been fluffing them endlessly, I needed a lot more than exactly as good as the songs. I was finally persuaded to see them again last year, though (http://www.you-phoria.com/Blog/2023/June/king-gizzard-and-the-lizard-wizard-or-salt-shed-or-6-11-and-6-12), and I discovered I could no longer predict anything they were about to do. Over two nights they showcased a zillion strengths, evoked completely different emotions as I walked away. It was even more true this year. The Chicago show was like LET’S RECORD A LIVE ALBUM good, whereas walking out of the High Life show I could barely name a song they’d played.
It’s not as though they technically have hits, but Sunday had featured a ton of their most well-known material, some party anthems, much more of an all-around festive atmosphere. Wednesday, though, they didn’t really play ANY hits. They focused for whatever reason on 2022’s OMNIUM GATHERUM and last year’s PETRODRAGONIC APOCALYPSE albums, plus an assortment of relative deep cuts including a beloved oldie, “God Is Calling Me Back Home”, that they hadn’t played in over nine years. Yep, this is already the sort of thing fans are feverishly keeping track of. I thought Milwaukee’s SILVER CORD section was even more dynamic and flowing than Chicago’s, and following this they took us into heavier territory than I’d yet experienced at a KGLW show. It began with the prog-thrash attack of “Planet B”, then their Tool-ish tendencies emerged for a while, and after a relative breather that saw “Honey” flirt with and then segue into “Sleep Drifter” (okay these are ARGUABLY hits), they closed the show with the monstrous statement-of-self “K.G.L.W.” off one of their 25 albums I completely forgot existed.
My wife leans over. “I like them better than Phish”, she says. The Lizards hit all the sweet spots for her at this, her first show, despite her not knowing a single song they played. She’s more of a Melvins gal than a Phish gal, and when it comes down to it, Gizz would make way more sense on a bill with the Melvins than with Phish—they could call it the KING BUZZARD TOUR! I can’t argue with her; KGLW are better than Phish on every single level except the one thing that Phish does better than anybody else. That one thing isn’t and shouldn’t be so important to non-Phishheads; however, some day Phish’s run will end for real, and if I’m still getting around in the world by then I’m still gonna need somewhere to go and dance, or at least bang my head. I’ve seen so many bands over the years trying to get to this level. After a couple KGLW shows I’m feeling so much better about the future.