Photo Credit: Lee Vincent Grubb
It’s hard to say how long I’ve been waiting to see King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard. The last time the band came through Seattle the venue was 21+, and as I was a mere 19 at the time, I was compelled to at least stand outside and catch a few muddled notes from my favorite band. But now my time has come, and so has yours because King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard will be performing Tuesday, October 10th at our very own Neptune Theater—and the show is ALL AGES!
King Giz has grown immensely over the last year, developing quite a devoted fan base along the way. It’s no wonder too because the band has and released three completely unique and well-renowned albums in the last year alone. Their first release of the year, Flying Microtonal Banana, is perhaps the most unique album of the set. For this album King Giz created all new instruments for themselves, such as adding frets to their guitars to create unique microtones. Basically this means the band created an extra space between the musical notes, making 24 notes an octave instead of 12. You can find an example from their song “Melting” below:
Following Flying Microtonal Banana, King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard released Murder of the Universe, a take on their 2016 high-energy album Nonagon Infinity. Murder of the Univerise is probably the album of the three that gets the least attention, but upon listening, there is some really cool narration in there which is paired with the classic King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard sound. The newest release, and the last of the year so far, is the beautiful, jazzy album Sketches of Brunswick East. Sketches is a break from King Gizzard’s fast-paced energy which dominated their recent handful of albums and brings their sound back to the mellow and uniquely crafted style of Paper Mache Dream Balloon, which I like so much from 2015.
With all these releases, what will King Giz play at their show at the Paramount this week? My money is on a little Microtonal Banana, Nonagon Infinity and, if we are lucky, a nice break coming from Sketches of Brunswick East. But who’s to say, with a discography so vastly comprehensive there really is no predicting what King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard will do next.
To best prepare for the show I suggest taking a visit to my favorite King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard meme page, and perhaps listening to a nice tune from Sketches of Brunswick East to get you through the stress of waiting.
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