Photo by PhotonObscura

It's been a month since King Gizzard's triumphant return to Buena Vista, Colorado, for their second Field of Vision fest. The KGLW.net team has gathered together words and images to capture our experiences and we hope you enjoy the variety of perspectives offered. From the various stages of the concert site to Mirage City to the couch and beyond, Field of Vision II offers plenty to unpack. Our views are not the last word, of course! If you have thoughts and memories to share, we encourage you to leave a review of the show itself. Navigate to one of the festival’s setlists and click “+ Add a Review” to share your thoughts.

Gratitude as a Rhythm (recap and photos by Rspro)

“The primary hope is for the no-repeats rule to continue at Field of Vision. The list of songs to pull from untapped in 2025 is monumental. I hope next year is as monumental as what we were gifted in 2025.” This is how I ended my review of the inaugural Field of Vision Festival in 2025. I’m very grateful for this band and community, because they delivered exceptionally well on those expectations. While some may comment there were repeats of songs such as “Slow Jam 1,” “Perihelion,” “Murder of the Universe,” “Gilgamesh,” and “Extinction,” the band made an effort to perform entirely unique variations compared to last year, “Extinction” metal version being my personal favorite of the unique variants. “Self-Immolate” into “Extinction” into “Mars for the Rich” felt like a subtle message to humanity as a start to their performance.

There were notable deep dives comparable to last year’s “Empty” performance with “Stressin’,” “Black Tooth,” and “Dead-Beat” being highlights. By far my two favorite aspects of the Gizzard shows were the stretching of songs between multiple nights of music (“The River” closing night one and opening night two, and “HeadOn/Pill” closing night two and opening night three), and the live debuts of both “The Land Before Timeland” and “Gliese 710,” the former merging into a stellar intro to “Iron Lung.” The “Head On” portion from the end of night two was dragged out far more than the average performance in the most perfect way, leaving room on Sunday for a heavily jammed “Pill” that blended into one of my newest white whales, “Sea of Trees,” having caught “Sense” (my true white whale) the year prior. Maybe “The Wheel” will appear in 2027?

One of the most blissful moments of the Gizzard shows came this year at the end of the final Nathan set with the most beautiful rendition yet of “Hell’s Itch.” The singing was on point, the tempo was locked in hard, Cavs began some groovy drumming at the perfect moment, the Pure Shores cover was mesmerizing, Stu began adding flute over the cover portion, and then the cherry on top came when Joey started changing the lyrics from “I’m finally red” to “we’re finally here.” “Look at me now, Field of Vision, we’re finally here.” The crowd chanted “Holy Shit” following the song, a recurring chant throughout the festival ground main stage’s biggest moments of the weekend. Gratitude is a rhythm, and we were flowing deep down the river with the band’s performances this year.

Beyond the Gizzard shows, the soothing sounds of camping near the creek was a personal highlight of the entire weekend. Castle Stage was by far the best festival improvement. Timeland Stage was a fun experience, but the proper lack of sound amplification left little room for those not near the stage to properly enjoy the acts. The Castle Stage on the contrary was surrounded by stacks of straw bales to prevent the newly installed surround sound system from decimating adjacent campsites. The best daytime set was seeing Stu solo from the front, watching Alan of Heaps Keen vibing hard to the beats while getting some camcorder footage. Back to the Main Stage, Angine de Poitrine had the most energetic, engaged crowd outside of the main act. Die Spitz unfortunately cancelled which resulted in an extended set length. The crowd dynamics were wild for a young touring band. Virality on full display. Saturday’s late night sets by W.I.T.C.H. and La Luz were some of my favorites, but were unfortunately two of the streams that featured audio issues and cannot be found in full online. Hopefully Heaps Keen reuploads those shows at a later date similar to their response to Babe Rainbow’s late night set at the Timeland Stage in 2025.

Field of Vision 2026 felt like a general improvement from an already great experience in 2025. My personal hopes for 2027 include more variants of songs, whether Nathan songs without Nathan, more guest sit-ins, or sprinkling in some acoustic performances. It would be amazing to see the band continue to dip into the studio catalogue and perform songs rarely or never seen live; I’m looking at you “Candles!” If there was one hope though, there needs to be some festival representation from the albums Butterfly 3000 and Changes. Please bring them to 2027!!

"I was the world in which I walked": Three Nights of FoV (recap and photo by AlteredBeef)

Night 1, I stayed planted on Cookie’s side, danced hard and had fun but didn’t move my feet a whole lot. My knees were kinda sore. I am getting older, and the altitude, ya know? Of course, that’s what I was telling myself. Still, I was fully focused on this immaculate show. Amazing finish to this one for me with “The Land Before Timeland” and those “Hypertension” teases. The most transcendent of moments came during the “Magma.” I am a rock “Magma” guy. I’m a rock guy. EDM has never been my thing, despite plenty of chances. But during “Magma” > “Smoke & Mirrors” > “Level 5” I opened up to it far beyond what I’d been able to for The Silver Cord. It was a conscious move to open myself to this music, but it was also something I needed to do without question in that moment. I have told a story of myself to myself for many years and now it is time for that story to change.

Night 2 was loose and wild and freely flowing in a way I didn’t know I still had in me. I’d been off the festival grounds in the morning up in a canyon carved by the Arkansas River, and tromping back along abandoned railroad tracks, I spooked a bear. That encounter preternaturally sharpened my senses and filled me with life. At showtime, I felt extra fire as this one lifted off into that return to “The River” with the following “Wah Wah” (my buddy Brent had seen it coming). Of course, just rambling through the crowd I came upon him at that perfect moment with a boisterous greeting. This night was that night, running into everyone, moving fluidly through the crowd to enjoy the show from all angles, greeting friends or making new ones. Particularly good spots were at the hammocks up the hill, and up close on Ambrose’s side where people were dancing like mad. I joined them and felt good in my body. If last night I was megalithic, tonight I was aerodynamic.

Night 3 was where the festival caught up to me; still, I managed an uproarious time. This night, as the showtime approached, I dug into the reserves. “Pill” and “Sea of Trees” made me feel part of the flow of energy in the natural world, and that font of it from all of us humans channeling love. I found my deepest well of energy, flow, and movement in the Nathan segment. Mountainous, ravenous, right where I wanted to be. “Slow Jam 1” through “Hell’s Itch” came and went and I was fully open to these arrangements, taking them in and allowing them to flow through me. The two previous nights had opened me fully to the table, and the time was over when I’d say, no, not for me, thank you, I prefer other sounds. This show and the festival in full were restorative, regenerative.

I gained a hundred years of life over three days, rewound the clock, went to Timeland and back again, embraced altered futures, worked with time, crumbled and reformed. Field of Vision, The Return, returned me.

I was the world in which I walked, and what I saw Or heard or felt came not but from myself; And there I found myself more truly and more strange.

— Wallace Stevens

Nathan, Traverser of Celestial Heights (recap by Nathan Rose)

Field Of Vision II was the best music festival I have attended along with the legendary Desert Daze of 2016 at The Institute of Metaphysics in Joshua Tree, California where I saw Oh Sees and King Gizzard And The Lizard Wizard live for the first time. 2016 was the Nonagon Infinity tour and the second US tour for the band. Over the years I have been to dozens of music festivals including FOV I 2025 and FOV is a special festival unlike any other.

FOV II was my 12th - 14th time seeing King Gizzard live. As a music enthusiast, journalist and musician, I attend 30 to 50 concerts a year. There are incredible live bands touring today and we saw several of them at FOV II but King Gizzard is likely the best live band on Earth in my opinion.

Buena Vista, Colorado where FOV takes place is one hour from where I lived a decade ago. I always arrive on Monday before the festival to enjoy the peak of the Perseid meteor shower in a certified dark sky area. Seeing the Milky Way and hundreds of shooting stars while soaking in mineral hot springs on the mountainside is the best altitude adjustment imaginable for three days of dancing.

King Gizzard crushed it all three nights. The biggest change from the past was the synth set-up, “Nathan,” which had evolved from the prior year in every way. Nathan is the loving name for their modular synth and it is a spectacular and complex instrument. When amplified through the venue’s PA the sound is rich, harmonic, nuanced, deep and ethereal. Overall, it is an absolute pleasure to listen to. I am not an electronic music person but I have always loved electronic ambient, 70s krautrock, and movie soundtracks of the 80s. Gizzard’s deep dive into synthesis challenges my musical boundaries as a guitar–loving person. After experiencing FOV II, Nathan may be the most hi-fi and beautiful instrument I have ever heard.

The live stream audio and recordings feel small and limited compared to the real thing blasted through the PA in full frequency resolution. In real life, Nathan is so fun to dance to and creates sounds unlike anything I have heard before. The strange synthesis and sonic textures rattled my bones with deep bass and fizzled my brain into a full-blown psychoacoustic reaction. I kept saying, “The sound is HUGE!” Nathan pairs very well with mind-altering plants and herbs and can instantly turn a venue into a dance party.

In the hands of King Gizz, Nathan becomes an endless pool of creative possibilities. This led many people to say things like, “if they mixed Nathan with…” or “What if they did this or that with Nathan?” This depth of inspiration was on display all three nights with new versions of songs and freeform jams that went into EDM, krautrock and abstract extraterrestrial music.

Photo by PhotonObscura

Highlights from Night 1 included electronic “Magma,” “Smoke and Mirrors,” and “Level 5.” All of these songs had beats and drops that hit hard, moving the audience to dance. Night 2, they played the debut of “Alien Metal” and an electronic rendition of “Perihelion.” Night 3 felt more chill in comparison to prior nights with longer passages on the synth and an extended suite that included live debuts for “Sapience” and “Superheavy, Supercritical” from Alien Metal.

I felt the music was transcendent throughout the three nights or I could say, I transcended on all three nights. The band was a little foggy on the transitions in some of the songs which kept them on edge and opened the gates to new interpretations and improvisations which came through brilliantly. My favorite example of this improvisation is Friday Night toward the end of the set with a continuous medley which included, “Robot Stop” to “Cut Throat Boogie” to “Robot Stop” to “Big Fig Wasp” with teases for “Magma,” “Am I In Heaven,” and “Field Of Vision.”

The band treated us with new metal versions of, “Extinction” and “Gilgamesh.” Breakout high energy garage rock like, “Sea Of Trees,” “Black Tooth,” and “Dead Beat” from their first EP. Heavy metal glory was achieved on Night 3 with “Gilgamesh,” “Dragon,” and “The Great Chain Of Being.” The close out on the third night started with a stunning guitar solo from Joey on “Work This Time.” The final send off was the fun rocking title track for the festival, “Field Of Vision.” This finale brought me and the crowd into exuberant reverie with the loud audience singing along to the chorus of, “I’m Being a Silly Billy” and “Field Of Vision!”

Unbelievable sets from King Gizzard. The supporting acts were incredible. We opened the stargate with Blood Incantation, rocked out to Earth Tongue and La Luz. Met the intergalactic travelers Angine De Poitrine, and got wild with Primitive Ring, Spacemoth and so many more. I am so happy that we may do it all again next year!

A Toast to Heaps Keen (recap and photos by TimelandIsWacky)

I, once again, was unfortunately not able to make it to Field of Vision. I ultimately chose to take a road trip to New York City and settled for the streams like I did last year, though given how amazing Heaps Keen did with the festivities I couldn’t complain. This year felt like a solid improvement over last year’s streams. All around better connection, better sound, the works. However, the bonuses this year really made it even more special. Octavia was constantly experimenting with visuals especially on the last two nights, providing some really trippy effects that only heightened the various sets. Blood Incantation’s show stood out in particular, though there were many great moments. I would be remiss not to mention the filmed segments featuring GizzTV’s new host Mac! It was an interesting decision to give someone with very little knowledge of the scene such a big role, but his segments throughout the weekend provided many great moments and created their own sort of B-plot to the shows. It was fun seeing Mac go from an outsider to part of the in-group: gaining bootleg merch, joining acid yoga, talking with the various bands performing… In those three days he became beloved in chat, just like the rest of the team. It astonishes me that these streams continue to be free. To listen to three days of shows without paying a dime is unheard of for a lineup this stacked, and Heaps Keen continues to make great strides improving their work. The team deserves all the support they can get and I encourage anyone who’s appreciated them to pitch in on Buy Me A Coffee.

I’ll close with my favorite moment. I decided to stay up late to watch the Bullant set because I wanted to be there for the final songs of the festival. Little did I know it would be the longest Bullant set yet with many old favorites of mine coming back (“Iruka” and “Mwah! I’m That Bitch” come to mind) as well as a surprise “Superheavy, Supercritical.” The end was a complete party with everyone dancing and having fun. Chat had turned into a party too, with the remaining viewers typing out the lyrics of George Michael’s “Freedom! ‘90” and Haddaway’s “What Is Love?” Yet there were so many thank yous going both ways. Heaps Keen was sending their love towards chat, and chat was sending it back. You have to know that something special is happening when chat is showing this level of appreciation for the technical side of such an operation. It doesn’t happen for just any stream. It was a beautiful way to end things. Once in a while “Young Hearts Run Free” will snake its way back into my mind and remind me of just how fun those three days were, even if I wasn’t there.

Red Hot! (recap and photo by Rattle)

The second Field of Vision fest offering up too many highlights to mention. From debuts of deep cuts like the long-teased "The Land Before Timeland," to reimaginings of synth-centric songs like "Extinction" and "Gilgamesh" as metal epics, the weekend was full of surprises. It's a long journey between "Black Tooth" and "Level 5," but the band managed to dip into nearly every corner of their discography over the course of three marathon sets. In addition to the main event, this year's guest acts were as diverse as they were strong. My big personal discovery was Earth Tongue (how are just two people making that super-heavy doomy sound?), but the act that really stole the show for me was perhaps the most unassuming: The Buena Vista High School Red Hots Jazz Band. Slated for a late-morning set at the Castle Stage on Sunday, there's a chance that this band was starting to cook while more than a few post-midnight revelers still slumbered in their tents. With the sun already high and the mountain skies perfectly blue, music teacher and band leader Marti Bott led this crew of young cats through a smattering of classics by Count Basie, Duke Ellington, and Herbie Hancock among others. As someone who listens to just as much jazz as rock (I know we're out there—whoever in the crowd shouted "Sun Ra!" at the ensemble that morning, you're my hero!), this set really scratched the itch for me. Special shoutout to Ernesto, who's trombone solos really brought the house—err, castle—down. If the Buena Vista Red Hots play again next year (and I sincerely hope that they do!) be sure to set your alarm clock and make it to the show. You won't be disappointed.

A Thank Your Letter to the Field of Vision Community (recap and photos by BetweenTheEars)

2026 was the second year making Field of Vision a part of the family summer vacation, our return to Buena Vista resting as the capstone on a week filled with mountaintop views, hot springs, good eats, and outdoor exploration. A shared love of music is a unifying force in our home, and the mutual love of KGLW my spouse and I share has rubbed off on our son. In 2025, lured by the beautiful setting, manageable festival size, and logistical convenience of staying off-site, we pondered the possibility our son could attend with us.

Following a frank discussion about how to make the experience for him as positive as possible (his experience is paramount, full stop) we threw caution to the wind and took the risk. Luckily for us, fortune favored the bold, and it was a success! This year’s experience was even better, and we’re so grateful to the fan community at Field of Vision for being open and welcoming to a youngster in the midst of what is generally a very adult setting.

One particular moment stood out to us during Saturday’s KGLW set. We were positioned way back at the top of the hill Cookie side, and the kiddo was rocking out to “Crumbling Castle” and “The Fourth Colour,” which he recognized and was very much into. During the pause in “The Fourth Colour,” while the crowd was quiet, he exuberantly shouts “I REALLY ENJOYED THAT” in his distinctive child’s voice… resulting in a lot of turned heads. What started as curious looks quickly turned to smiles, and just about everyone within earshot amplified his joy as a cheer erupted from our section of the hill just as the band blasted back into the song. Seeing our son get IT in his own authentic way, and receiving such a positive and supportive reaction reflected back exemplifies everything we’ve come to love about Field of Vision. It’s a moment we’ll never forget.

I’d continue to wax poetic about the passers-by who gave our son a high five walking into the venue, the kind people who ran over to give him a sticker, pin, or mini-gator, and the Mirage City vendors who gave him some free swag just for walking by. But I think Jay Weinberg captured what makes the FoV community so special best when he took a moment during his set to speak from the heart:

“On a very special sentimental note, this is my two-month old daughter's first show ever. Yesterday she got to see her uncle Cavs do a beautiful gong bath ceremony right on this very stage... and last night to see King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard. I think my wife and I will look back on this moment and be incredibly proud that this was her first ever live experience here with you guys … it's been an incredible experience these last couple years. I myself have been introduced to the Gizzverse and I really can't imagine a better home than here with you guys, here with everybody at Field of Vision. … It means a lot.”

The only disappointment from the weekend was that our son’s favorite song, “Lord of Lightning,” was cut from the setlist. But he’s well aware of how the band constructs their setlists, so I guess that means we’ll just have to go back again next year. Hope to see you again up at the back of Wood Chip Hill!