Australian psych rock outfit King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard kicked off their US and Canada 2018 tour last week in Santa Ana, California. The scraggly garage rock seven-piece have been seeing an influx of fandom and success in recent years, but they’ve been at it since 2010.
Multiple music critics staple King Gizz as “prolific” in regards to their copious record output and energetic live performances. Just last year, they promised AND delivered five full studio albums, the last one being Gumboot Soup which was released December 31 2017, right in the nick of time.
Back to those energetic live performances, though. The Aussies returned to the States May 31st to kick off their North American tour, which wraps up in Austin, Texas on June 22. This tour is a huge milestone in their career considering they’ve now graduated to larger venues and are selling out places like the Palladium in Los Angeles. Venue size didn’t keep them from riling up Southern California. They brought a 20-song setlist to Santa Ana, Los Angeles, and San Diego before they headed up to the Pacific Northwest. Their set has remained constant, as has the rowdiness. In fact, their fans are so rambunctious that frontman Stu Mackenzie had to stop four times in San Diego to remind the crowd to chill.
The sets are comprised from four out of five albums that were released in 2017, hitting on all the peaks from each one (they’ve excluded Sketches of Brunswick East, which was a jazz-inspired collab with Alex Brettin of Mild High Club.) Following in the steps of Oh Sees, the band has two drummers performing on this tour. See our live photos from their Los Angeles date above, then peep the setlist and tour dates below. The Lizard Wizards will be returning to California in October to headline Desert Daze Music Festival.
2018 US Tour Dates
06/07 – Missoula, MT @ Monk’s
06/09 – Milwaukee MI @ The Pabst Theater
06/10 – Chicago, IL @ Riviera
06/11 – Detroit, MI @ Majestic Theater
06/12 – Toronto, ON @ Danforth Theater
06/13 – Montreal, QC @ Le National
06/14 – Boston, MA @ Royale
06/15 – Brooklyn, NY @ Brooklyn Steel
06/18 – Philadelphia, PA @ Union Transfer
06/19 – Asheville, NC @ Orange Peel
06/20 – Atlanta, GA @ Variety Playhouse
06/21 – New Orleans, LA @ Republic New Orleans
06/22 – Austin, TX @ Stubb’s Outdoors – Waller Creek Amphitheatre
