NOTE: All photos are copyright of Dean Keim 2025
The Aussie absurdist surrealist rock outfit known as King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard staged a two night stand at Forest Hills Stadium in Queens, NY with radically different setups for each night. I was in attendance for the first night, which was classically inspired, backed by the Orchestra of St. Luke’s conducted by Sarah Hicks. The following day’s show was a straighter “rock” performance with no orchestra that flirted with their more experimental electronic side. This is the third year this band has played shows here and the second in which they played back-to-back performances at this historic tennis stadium, which has held musical concerts since the 60’s including musical icons like The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, Simon & Garfunkel, Frank Sinatra, Barbra Streisand, and many, many more. Despite Billboard recently naming Forest Hills Stadium the best amphitheater on the East Coast, it was seemingly in danger of having to cancel all of its shows this year due to legal action threatened by some local residents due to noise and rowdy crowd complaints but, luckily, the shows will continue to grace this amazing slice of NYC history, and the night was a glowing love letter to all the King Gizzard fans who have stuck around for their many radical transformations.
The band started back in 2010 in Melborn, Australia, and they quickly perfected a garage rock psychedelia that displayed generous doses of surf music and indulged in absurdist sensibilities, but along way they greatly expanded their sound, never shying away from any musical genre that can help them expand their philosophical narrative of “The Gizzverse,” and thusly they have incorporated lavish helpings of everything from heavy metal, to prog, to electronic experimentation, and now a more refined classical aptitude on their newest album Phantom Island.
The purist vinyl-loving DJ Crenshaw opened the show, but when the orchestra came out and set up, you knew you were in for something special.
The lead mischief maker Stu Mackenzie later exclaimed to the packed stadium that they were one of the few audiences to get to experience the full orchestral experience on this tour. Stu was joined by most of the founding team including guitarist Joey Walker, bassist Lucas Harwood, and drummer Michael Cavanagh, as well as long-time members keyboardist Ambrose Kenny-Smith and multi-instrumentalist Cook Craig. Stu, Joey, and Ambrose each front at least some of the lead vocal work and they often trade off multiple times per song. For this special show format, they played the entirety of their new album Phantom Island front to back with the full symphony for their first set, before returning to the stage to play a couple songs like the jazzy “Magma” in a “rock band” style sans grand orchestration. They then welcomed the orchestra back to play some deep cuts, cult classics, and Gizzverse faves like “Crumbling Castle” and “Mars for the Rich”, ending with the epic rocker “Iron Lung.” I was particularly impressed how the orchestration blended so effortlessly with some of their heavier metal-inspired rockers like “The Dragon”, which felt like it tore open a rift into the very center of the planet as it burned with a white-hot passion. The epic track felt like it sailed a sea of magma-fueled crescendos expanded out with strings and woodwinds that left me totally awestruck. I can’t wait to see and hear what the King will do next.
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