Words by W.B.T.G. Slinger, AlteredBeef, and Rowdy

On this day two years ago, KGLW.net went live. Can you believe it has already been a year since our last meta update? Because we certainly can’t — we thought our first year as a site was big!

We open this reflection on the past year with a gator-sized thank you to everyone who has been involved in KGLW.net, from team members to contributors to visitors. We really could not and would not do this without you. So, please take our gratitude with you as you read the post that follows, and check the end for the full list of thanks. But let’s start with a special shout out to grey_locke for the gif she created to help us celebrate! It really does feel like we’re flying through clouds of love.

Recap

Here are some site content highlights from the last year:

From November 2023 through to January we had a trickle of new site features such as cancelled shows, various additions and UI improvements for stats, and a new tease summary. Those looking for the best curated live tapes also got volume 1 of Brent’s Rec’s in January. Brent is a long term KGLW.net contributor, and has possibly spent more time listening to King Gizzard tapes than anyone else. With decades spent dedicated to live music and the jam scene, we are proud to host his top notch recommendations.

In February we launched Han-Tyumi as an AI powered chat interface. You can read more about it in that link, as well as access the bot, but I’ll let Han-Tyumi describe our last year in his own words and you should get the idea:

April saw the roll out of Song Histories, the largest and one of the most impressive features of the site; owing to the fact that it is literally a whole book’s worth of information on every King Gizzard song. Authored by TimelandIsWacky, he originally joined the team with his comprehensive ‘23 Chicago Residency Recap, which made it very clear to us all that he was a writing force to be reckoned with. Based on not much more than a casual prompt about gathering known information about every song, he got to work. The text kept unfurling at an astonishing rate, begging for a huge collaborative editing effort (thanks Dan). The feedback for Song Histories has been great, with many thoughtful comments; and with ongoing tours the project is going as strong as ever! For example, a recent development is the unearthing of the origin of the clips used in the “30 Past 7” music video, a year-long search, and finally solved by TimelandIsWacky’s meticulous and detailed process of scouring through IMDB.

In June, we published an interview with Michelle Cable. As the band’s manager she has provided crucial support for this site since our early days, so we thought it was finally time to shine the spotlight on her in our own way.

Rowdy joined the team off the back of his Anatomy of a King Gizz Show writeup, and in the same vein took on a much more ambitious project, the 2024 NA Tour Guide, which is just about to have its second digital and physical publication in preparation for the upcoming second tour leg.

August had the addition of the poster archive page, a single place to access the various posters on each setlist page.

September saw the launch of Gizz Tapes, an exciting spin-off from the site by our new team member Jamie. The service has been steadily gaining features and users ever since, and provides previously unseen access to quality King Gizzard live recordings. Unfortunately the service has been affected by the recent attacks on the Internet Archive, so as that comes back watch this space for future planned updates.

Shortly after, Rolling Stone did a great feature on the DIY independent trajectory of the band, and surprisingly they gave our very own site a mention in reference to fans tracking setlists. As one of the last bastions of traditional rock music journalism, this was very humbling for the team.

Stats

This year has been one of remarkable growth in many directions. Our team has both become bigger and tighter as we’ve developed many new projects that have required a make or break level of collaboration and dedication. In our case, we’re a closer team than ever, especially because many of us got to meet in person for the first time this year on tour. Out there at the shows, whether it was on the most recent American tour, in Europe, or even in South America (shout out to site artist Jorclank and his first show in Colombia), we met many who know and love our site.

Looking at the numbers, our site surpassed a million visits during the U.S. tour. Since we started keeping count on Jan. 22, 2023, our growth has come in bursts that mostly correspond with tours or other band news. The graph below shows what a tremendous boost the last American tour was for our user base. More people than ever have started relying on our site for their setlists, song histories, lyrics, and statistics. We’re now up to 2,690 registered users to our site, growing by nearly 1,000 users during the most recent tour alone.

We also keep an eye on how people find our site through Google Search Console, which shows that more and more people are looking specifically for us with searches for “kglw setlist” and that people are selecting our site among other results when they enter a query like “flight b741.” Our approach from the beginning has been to be an international site just as King Gizzard is an international band; like them, we’ve seen our most success in the United States, but we’re pleased to also receive decent attention from fans in Australia, across Europe, and in South America.

The KGLW.net forum has shown an even greater rate of growth:

After a very quiet first year, we are very glad it has become one of the couch-touring hubs for 2024.

All signs point to this two-year mark as just the beginning for KGLW.net. We have put in a lot of effort to get here, and, you know, it’s all been rewarding. From the first setlists slapped onto the static site back in October ‘22, to the fast-paced setlist threads on our forum of today, we’re floating along and loving every minute of it. So, we’re planning on sticking around a while and we hope you find it welcoming enough to stay, too.
AlteredBeef/Justin was talking with Ted Rockwell, founder of EverydayCompanion.com (a Widespread Panic fan site that has been around for over 30 years), and it occurred to him that starting this site was a bit like buying a pet tortoise. This is a lifelong commitment; and we’re here for it!

Team

We would like to acknowledge everyone who has dedicated themselves to the site in the last year. We are all volunteers, and every aspect of the site is built from that, with all expenses out of pocket. Here are some of our contributors who have put in a particularly strong year:

Timeland and Rowdy went from single blog post contributors to leaders delivering major projects, you both inspire us all. Dan for his continued professional-grade editing touch with nearly every word we publish, we're very keen to read more from you. Ashley hit the ground running as our most diligent setlist team member, and has upheld the continued maintenance of all setlist content to an admirable degree. Tora joined the team as he prepared to tape the Deniliquin show, and has offered enthusiastic input into many aspects of the site since. BillabongValleyBootleg/Max has emerged as our site’s MVP with his hands in nearly every project of the site. We couldn’t do it without Max’s endless energy and drive as he runs most reddit threads, leads our instagram, manages our stickers and shirts, started our Mixlr page, and helps us keep on track in many other regards. KQ deserves mention for the highly valuable and detailed research on King Gizzard’s early history that has improved so many aspects of the site. Robert is the Gizz minded graphic designer bringing you designs for the tour guide, tour infographics, and more. We're excited to have him contributing to some more projects we have in the works for 2025. Yoshi was a huge help for KGLW.net's Mixlr presence on the NA '24 tour, going to nearly every show and holding a microphone so those on couch tour could listen along, thanks also to Max and Tora for their parts in that. While the band is streaming consistently now, we had some excellent live recordings while the stream team was working through technical difficulties to provide live audio. We also want to thank Rowan/TheFourthColour for his help on setlists and notable versions. Mitchell deserves our gratitude for helping us manage our collection of recordings. Lastly, thanks to Justin, Birds, Axe, and Drew not only for your continued management of the site and forum, but for the space for me to express my [W.B.T.G. Slinger] fandom of the band.

The team is more diverse than it has ever been, with representation from North and South America, Europe and the UK, and Australia. Covering different stages of life from High School-age to Gen X parents — at least two of us even welcomed new children into the world recently!
It is a wonderful bunch to be part of, so if you have any ideas to contribute to the site for the next year, don’t be a stranger.

Special Thanks

There are many people not directly involved in the team who we depend on to make the site happen, so special thanks to: the r/kgatlw subreddit mods, every fan meetup organiser, CashorTrade, Adam Scheinberg and his Songfish platform, Charlie Dirkson & Ellis Godard of Mockingbird Foundation and Phish.net, Ted Rockwell of EverydayCompanion.com and Josh Stack of Panic Fans for Food, Michelle Cable, Dave, and the rest of the p(doom) team. Every writer, taper, and photographer who contributed to the blog.