2024 was a monumental year for fans of live King Gizzard with the launch of the official livestream and bootlegger downloads of every show starting with last year's steller 2-leg US summer/fall tour. I know it's been said a million times already, including a bunch of times by myself in other forums and media, but it really can’t be said enough: Thank You King Gizzard for such an amazing gift these full show streams have been! And to make them free and part of the official bootlegger program is above and beyond what even the most altruistic bands have done for their fans. King Gizzard should be more widely praised for sharing their live recordings with their fans, while finding a way to make it work economically.
When I started the King Gizz Live Spreadsheet almost 3-years ago there were not many live King Gizzard obsessed fans like I had only recently become. I had just finished an impromptu 3-show King Gizzard run in Sonoma, Petaluma and San Francisco, California and witnessed three very distinct amazing shows with no repeat songs. The band seemed much looser, improvisational, and so much more impressive then when I had seen my first show three years prior in 2019 in San Francisco, which was outstanding at the time, but by 2022 live King Gizzard had reached an entirely new level, or maybe multiple new levels. I call my mini-tour “impromptu” in that I was only planning to attend the Sonoma show, but after the first show and rumors of no repeats for the Bay Area, I scrambled to find tickets to the next two shows. Those 3 Bay Area California shows in April 2022 cemented my obsession for live King Gizz ever since.
Following those shows, I checked the internet to see who was talking about the amazing spring tour with multiple shows with no repeats, and to find websites and resources to follow their live performances. I found very few resources at that time focused on live King Gizzard outside a small smattering of live show obsessed fans and a handful of tapers like Mystery Jack. Very very few of us were hitting multiple shows in a tour. King Gizz’s extraordinary live show wouldn’t remain a relative secret for long once the US jamband scene started figuring things out around the time of King Gizzard’s epic Bonnaroo 2022 performance. So many existing live music fans jumped aboard at that time for the game changing Fall 2022 US tour and King Gizz went from playing venues of as few as 500 people in the Spring to venues of up to 8.5k at The Greek Theater and Red Rocks in the Fall of the same year.
Even though I was a huge believer from those NorCal shows onward, It is unreal to me that less than 3-years later, the worldwide demand to watch and hear every King Gizz live show is so strong to support a livestream with tens of thousands of participants. With the bootlegger videos and streams for new shows expected to continue going forward, one of my original hopes of every show being live streamed has actually come true, and fulfilled dreams are such a rarity in this day and age. However, this does leave a limited amount of historic high quality taper recordings to highlight through future editions of Brent’s Recs. Therefore, I will be ending this series in a few months with volume #10. While there will still be more historic recordings that deserve to be highlighted for the quality of music and recordings, I want to leave that to the likes of the wonderful team at KGLW.net or others who can better evaluate the quality of remaining historic recordings, and navigate the ethical complexities of questionable recording sources or taper reputations.
While I am satisfied with the collection of taper audience recordings to be highlighted over the 10 volumes, and am even more pleased with live recordings being shared by King Gizz going forward, there is still a massive hole in my live King Gizz experience: No not vomiting or dying. I would like to hear what King Gizzard has in their “vault”, or Stu’s hard drive, or wherever they store the vast treasure trove of yet to be shared live multi-sourced soundboard recordings. Through past AMA’s the band has mentioned that they have multi-sourced recordings of most of their live performances since sometime in 2018. This would mean recordings of hundreds of shows might one day become available, including probably my still favorite year, 2022, which is when in my opinion King Gizzard fully materialized as the best live band in the world. Yet so few 2022 soundboard recordings are available to hear.
So, the final three volumes of Brent’s Recs will not only highlight some of the best taper recordings from the pre livestream era, but will also be a plea for King Gizzard to release some of the best soundboard recordings yet unheard by fans. The band is already so generous so it is difficult to ask for more, but we just love some of these older shows so damn much. The remaining two editions of Brent’s Recs over the next couple of months will include KGLW.net staff and contributing fans’ recommended archive releases. For this edition though, here is my own lengthy wishlist, which focuses mainly on “missing shows” without high quality taper recordings:
Jam and Garage nights (December 20th/22nd, 2021): Following the Australian microtonal tour in 2021 and a few one-off shows, King Gizzard announced they would be playing 5 unique shows in Brisbane in December, each with a preprinted setlist focused on a different genre. There would be Acoustic, Jam, Microtonal, Garage and Metal nights with no repeat songs. The Acoustic night became the ‘Live in Brisbane’ official bootlegger. While the Microtonal night was not released, there are 2 other microtonal official bootleggers from earlier in 2021 (‘Live in Melbourne’ and ‘Live in Sydney’). The Metal night was canceled due to a COVID outbreak. That leaves Garage and Jam nights as being two of the most sought after “missing recordings”. We only have partial audience recordings from both (some highlights below) with more of Garage night “missing” than Jam night. Check out these super unique setlists and imagine hearing these shows in high quality multi-sourced audio.
King Gizzard Jams - Am I In Heaven
King Gizzard - Garage Night Highlights - Live in Brisbane 2021
Zihuatanejo and Mexico City (May 8th/13th, 2022): Back in Brent's Recs, Vol. 5: Marathon Edition I highlighted the Mexico City marathon show as one of the best marathons. And while an official bootlegger of the 5/6/22 Mexico City marathon show would be epic, I’d be equally interested in hearing two other shows from that legendary 2022 Mexico mini-tour: 2022-05-08 Casa MUSA Zihuatanejo, Gro., Mexico and 2022-05-13 House of Vans CDMX Mexico City, Mexico King - just look at these marvelously jammy setlists.
The Zihuatanejo show is a rare-for-2022 non-metal and non-microtonal show. There exists below a gift of 51-minutes of audience video of just 3 songs pieced together (LSSF, Dripping Tap and Bitter Boogie). I have listened to this more than most other live Gizz videos, especially the Lonely Steel Sheet Flyer portion which sounds especially crisp. I can only imagine what the other missing jams from this night sound like. I hope the Pacific is as blue as it has been in my dreams.
King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard - Live at Zihuatanejo Beach; May 8, 2022 (Partial)
The House of Vans show on 5/13/22 in Mexico City was Cookie’s birthday! The Head On/Pill opener and Am in Heaven? closer could be on any dream setlist. Add in Mystery Jack, Anoxia and a likely raging Rattlesnake among others and it's one I can’t wait to hear. Plus the minimal clips we do have look look wild.
King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard Rattlesnake House of Vans CDMX 2022
King gizzard & the lizard wizard Live House Of Vans México 13/05/22 Straws in the wind ✨
5 nights at Primavera Sound, Barcelona (June 2022): Between June 3rd and June 9th, 2022, King Gizzard played 5-shows at 4 separate venues in Barcelona, Spain as part of the Primavera Sound festival. These are also the shows where Stu and Joey’s guitars got damaged in-transit and they played with replacements for the metal songs. Over the 5 Barcelona shows they played 58 songs with no repeats. There are no complete recordings of any of the five shows, but there are a bunch of decent clips at KGLW.net and on the spreadsheet. It would be a dream to get an official bootleg of this entire Barcelona run to hear outstanding performances of most of the songs in the rotation at that point of the tour. Below is a wild Robot Stop > Big Fig Wasp from night 3.
Ally Pally and Troxy, London (March 22nd/23rd, 2023): This entire 2023 European tour is highly underrated and some official bootlegs could do more to bring these amazing shows more to light. This tour has the first shows outside Australia with the extra synths and synth jams, although Nathan 1.0 would not debuted until the US residency tour a few months later. In addition to the spawn of the “grow wings and fly” vocals, there was also the highly infectious “monkeys in Australia” vocals sprinkled throughout the tour. I could pick most shows as a potential favorite, but for my wishlist I chose the dual London tour closers at Ally Pally and Troxy, or 2 of the 3 shows I was fortunate enough to be able to attend. Ally Pally includes a sick Work This Time w/ Joey solo; Shanghai and Grim Reaper synth jams; along with an absolute blazing closing trio of Iron Lung > Magma, Dripping Tap. I don’t think I ever danced so hard as I did on that giant Ally Pally floor. The Troxy show was just as superb with The Wheel bustout, and a dream Am I in Heaven? closer with the aforementioned infectious “monkeys in Australia” silliness thrown in. There is no available full recording of Ally Pally, but what is available linked below is absolutely thrilling. The Troxy recording isn’t quite the quality to make it to Brent’s Recs and my favorite version (also below) is missing the first couple of songs.
King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard, Wednesday, 22nd March 2023 / London, Ally Pally
King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard, Thursday, 23 March, at the Troxy, London, England
And now on to the actual Brent’s Recs we can listen to in full thanks again to all the forward thinking tapers:
March 11, 2018 - Munich, Germany - Neue Theaterfabrik
This is an outstanding recording by John Porno (Swabian Music Archive). There is also a YouTube audio version if you prefer. The Captain Beefheart song Electricity for the walkout music sets the bar high. This show opens with an extended microtonal set including current rarities like Greenhouse Heat Death and D-Day, along with a Doom City that includes an impromptu Crumbling Castle outro. Set 2 begins with a new tune only recently identified as an unreleased song called <a href="https://kglw.net/song/rock-n-roll/about?artist_id=1>“Riff Raff”. A big highlight is the mini Murder of the Universe suite of songs without Murder of the Universe itself, which would not be debuted live for another year. The slow and dreamy medley for Jason’s birthday, with bits of The River, Am I in Heaven? and Head On/Pill is an ethereal highlight that transitions masterfully into a high energy trio of Nonagon songs, including the rarer Big Fig Wasp and a Hawkwind’s Master of the Universe snippet. Nonagon is the perfect ending to an outstanding show.
April 20, 2022 - Tucson, Arizona, USA - The Rialto Theatre
This is a high quality recording by MakersMarc. Opening with Murder of the Universe suite never gets old. Other highlights include Hot Water, Muddy Water and the debut of Predator X. Shanghai is a pre-synth jam version which is still fun in a more quaint way. There is the obligatory 4/20 stage banter. The closing microtonal section is lengthy and includes a not-played-since-2022 KGLW (intro) and (outro) sandwich. The Rattlesnake is a rager, as is the KGLW (outro), and both are rarely played in the same show.
October 16, 2022 - Detroit, Michigan, USA - Masonic Temple Theatre>
This is a great recording from Mystery Jack Official. The show starts with technical difficulties and hilarious banter. After a raging start including some wonderful metal jamming in the Gaia opener, it rolls into one of the jammier shows of the tour, with stellar versions of Magenta Mountain, Magma, Lava and of course the main feature, the absolutely mental The River > Wah Wah > The River > Wah Wah > Road Train. Throw in an extra energetic Horology suite and heartfelt Let Me Mend the Past to make a great show feel even more special. Unfortunately the recording loses about 25 seconds of the Lava jam towards the end, but such is the nature of taping.
March 18, 2023 - Wiesbaden, Germany - Schlachthof Wiesbaden
This is an outstanding recording by Altered Beast Broadcasting (Streamus) captured over this five video YouTube playlist (mostly 4 videos) with only a few minor bits missing. This show hits hard from the start with an extra chunky Mars for the Rich and Predator X followed by the brand new at the time Gila Monster. Up next are the synth heavy Grim Reaper and Shanghai, which are huge highlights despite some technical difficulties with the pre-Nathan era synths. The synth jam includes some of the earliest “grow wings and fly” lyrics. Other favorites include Doom City, Lava, Wah Wah > Road Train, It’s Got Old, Hypertension and The Dripping Tap closer, or basically the entire show.
May 29, 2024 - Wolverhampton, England - The Civic Hall
This is a high quality recording from puffanug. There are a bunch of outstanding complete audio and video available to choose from. This was my favorite show of the 2024 European tour, and one of the best shows I’ve been fortunate enough to attend. (Much love to everyone on the UK tour!) I was happy to see the KGLW.net staff award this show a 2024 Gizzie for best show of the tour. I can’t really add much to what KGLW.net team wrote, except maybe one thing: The Float Along - Fill Your Lungs opener is my current favorite ever version, and don’t come at me with a better FAFYL unless it has Stu playing that beautiful composed outro.
Links to these and future Brent's Recs, highlighting the very best King Gizz audience recordings will be at King Gizz Live Spreadsheet. Make a recommendation for the next edition in the comments.