King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard (KGLW) is among the world’s most unique rock bands. Since forming in 2010, the Australian band has been radically transforming the bandwidth and the culture of the jam band music scene. Nowadays, entrance into the Gizzverse is much like walking through the looking glass and joining Alice in Wonderland.
KGLW's current lineup consists of Stu Mackenzie (vocals, guitar), Ambrose Kenny-Smith (vocals, harmonica, keyboards), Cook Craig (guitar, keyboards, vocals), Joey Walker (guitar, vocals), Lucas Harwood (bass, vocals), and Michael Cavanagh (drums, vocals). The band is astoundingly prolific, releasing 27 studio albums and 56 live albums in the past 13 years. These albums have crossed many genres, with the band currently digging deeper into EDM rave and orchestral music. The band's most recent album, Phantom Island, which leaned into orchestral sounds, was released on June 13, 2025. KGLW bucks the standard economical logic of the music business and encourages its fans to bootleg and share its music, both with the band as well as with other fans.
The Phantom Island Tour brought KGLW to the United States for a summer 2025 series of performances consisting of two types of shows. In each city, the band would perform Phantom Island accompanied by a local symphony orchestra. In some cities, including New York City, the band also would rock a more traditional show. The tour will conclude on August 15-17 with The Field of Vision, a camping experience in Colorado's Rocky Mountains, during which the band promises to perform three three-hour sets.
KGLW returned to Forest Hills Stadium for its the third consecutive summer. No two KGLW concerts are ever alike. On the first of the two nights at the 13,000-capacity stadium, the band performed accompanied by the St. Luke’s Orchestra, conducted by Sarah Hicks. Together, the band and orchestra performed the entirety of the Phantom Island album, flourished with symphonic arrangements, plus a variety of nuggets from the band’s catalog. Night two was the rock set.
Welcome to the Gizzverse, an immersive experience built on the band’s spontaneous musical exploration, audience engagement, and psychedelic visuals. On night two, U.S. Girls and DJ Crenshaw provided opening sets. In the concession areas, the extensive lines of fans waiting to purchase souvenir merchandise saw young and old dressed in tie-dye shirts, wizard oufits, and lizard-decorated wardrobe. Inside the bowl, superfans along the front barrier eagerly awaited to see which songs the musicians would be drawing from their deep catalog during the marathon two-hour-plus set.
Once KGLW came on stage, the band’s energetic stage presence immediately electrified the audience. Just below the stage, crowdsurfing was relentless during the higher-energy songs. Further back, recurring whiffs of marijuana permeated the air throughout the show, far more than at a standard concert. Once the sun set, the vibrant lighting and kinetic projections on the large LED screen overshadowed the musicians, making them almost invisible. The event increasingly became more of an ethereal experience than simply an opportunity to watch musicians jam on their instruments.
Vocalist/guitarist Stu Mackenzie often led the charge, jumping up and down like on a pogo stick or rapidly pacing the stage, all while crushing high-powered guitar licks. The musicians improvised and jammed raucously, sometimes a bit unhinged, always on the verge of unexpectedly morphing in a new direction. Guitar licks soared, time signatures gravitated to the obtuse, until the plane landed peacefully without crashing. The songs easily transitioned from metal to psychedelia to hard rock, even stretching to ambient electronic dance music towards the end of the performance. Often it seemed like the musicians searched for cues because they did not know how long to jam before ending a song.
KGLW played songs from 12 different albums, including two from the current album, with songs frequently seguing into each other. During "Billabong Valley," keyboardist/vocalist Ambrose Kenny-Smith crowd surfed on an inflatable gator. The band also incorporated teases and quotes from other songs, including snippets of Beastie Boys tracks within "The Grim Reaper." The band ended the night with "K.G.L.W."
Overall, the concert was like a potent and bottomless cocktail of weirdness and raw power. For the audience, the Gizzverse was a hypnotic two hours in which to get lost in the music and the moment. KGLW’s intense performance provided a mind-bending experience that led the audience from headbanging to trance-like states. What other band can do this?
Setlist
Gaia
Predator X
Supercell
Superbug
Minimum Brain Size
Oddlife
Sense (→) The Grim Reaper (with snippets of the Beastie Boys’ “Intergalactic", "Sabotage", and "(You Gotta) Fight for Your Right (To Party!)") (>) Set (→) Extinction
Wah Wah (with “The River” intro, “Crumbling Castle” teases, and “Extinction” teases) (>) Road Train
Let Me Mend the Past
Altered Beast IV
Ambergris
Sad Pilot (>) Rats in the Sky
Hypertension (with “Extinction” teases)
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The Manhattan Beat reports on New York City's live music circuit. All articles are written by Everynight Charley Crespo. All photographs are taken by Everynight Charley Crespo, except when noted otherwise.
For a list of Manhattan venues that are presenting live music regularly, swing the desktop cursor to the right of the The Manhattan Beat home page and click on the pop-up tab "Where to Find Live Music."
For a more complete listing of upcoming performances in the New York City area, visit The Manhattan Beat's August calendar.
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