Excitement is a friend of the unpredictable, two terms that fit like a glove with the proposal of the Australians King Gizzard And The Lizard Wizard. If his prolific discography – some twenty records in just thirteen years – ranks among the most stimulating and eclectic of recent indie rock, his live version squares the indomitable ramifications of a constantly growing sound.
Capable of conjuring both Pink Floyd, Hawkwind y Frank Zappa such as Voivod, The Flaming Lips o Tame Impalaits amalgamation of colors and references was reflected in a diverse audience typical of a festival in which indies, lovers of stoner and psychedelia, metalheads and foreigners mixed, who took the opportunity to appreciate the architectural benefits of the main square of Poble Espanyol.
After the preliminaries with the cash power rock of The Prizethose from Melbourne started with an electrifying “All Is Known”, halftime sabbathiano of “Doom City” and the enveloping “Iron Lung”, nine minutes sprinkled with jazz arrangements with which we begin to take our feet off the ground; his are the verses “Centre gravity, planet me / Gimme the mushrooms, time to leave”, quite a declaration of intent.
With this task and with hardly any pause between songs, the septet chained together a priori antagonistic pieces, merging their stylistic edges into an expansive jam session nourished by apparent improvisations; a sound carousel as hypnotic as the lysergic projections that framed the silhouettes of the band.
The central block of the repertoire acted as a valley in a particular collective astral journey: the winding fifteen minutes of “Hypertension”, the funky “Ice V” and “Presumptuous”, or a lengthy “Hot Water”, with the inexhaustible leader of the group Stu Mackenzie wielding a flute in the style of Ian Anderson from Jethro Tull, propped up the foundations of a tense anticlimax that managed, paradoxically, to keep our senses alert.
With the exception of the most pop “The Garden Goblin”, songs like “Magma”, “Astroturf” or “Kepler-22b” did nothing but expand this vibration, with the band possessed by a contagious mood close to trance with which they managed to weave a sustained crescendo largely driven by their albums “Omnium Gatherum”, “Ice, Death, Planets, Lungs, Mushrooms And Lava” y “Changes”all of them published last year.
Already in the final stretch, the groove from “This Thing” acted as a shooting star in his personal cosmic coven, imploding as a big bang with “Gila Monster”, the only presence in the setlist from their latest album, an outburst of thrash metal in the form of an anthem that was chanted with raised fists by both heavies who yearned for more cuts in this vein and by countless pop souls momentarily converted to the cause.
The best news is that King Gizzard And The Lizard Wizard continue to gain strength and followers beyond musical styles, uniting and expanding the limits of their sidereal rock based on talent and live shows as impressive as last night. Pure magic.