A full recording from the early days of King Gizzard has been uncovered! Though it was shared as a torrent back in October 2017 and later posted in a Gizz Facebook group in 2018, this recording has been out of circulation until now. Our thanks go to KGLW.net team member KQ, who found the recording on a King Gizzard Facebook group and has preserved it on Archive.org and YouTube. This is now the second earliest fully recorded live show that we have access to as fans. KQ explains the significance of the show below, so turn on the recording and give it a read!

Words by KQ

This show took place on December 31st, 2011 at The Esplanade Hotel for the "Espy NYE" event with 14 other bands across three stages. Although the setlist is extremely similar to the one played a few weeks prior, this is the only known complete performance from this time, and it contains some notable tunes for those of us who are interested in King Gizzard's early history.

The set opens with the first-known recording of Elbow after debuting the song just three weeks prior. This song wouldn't be properly recorded for another three months, and features slightly different lyrics about a broken arm (the word "elbow" isn't used at this show, so it's likely the song had a different name at this point).

Dustbin Fletcher makes its debut in front of a live audience. The first known appearance of this song was from the PBS 106.7 performance a month prior, where they played the entire Willoughby's Beach EP, but aside from that it was mostly unknown if this song was included in their live sets at the time. As the song was so rarely played live, this is also the last-known performance of it, making this recording a very fascinating listen.

This show also features the second-known recordings of two unreleased songs: Talk Talk Talk and Stoned. Both of these songs were played at Meredith Music Festival a few weeks prior, though only 35 seconds of Talk Talk Talk were available. As well as having complete versions of both songs, this recording is of superior quality compared to the Meredith one, and lyrics are much more audible.

After Talk Talk Talk, Stu mentions his new guitar. This is a 12-string Stratocaster that he'd only been using for a few weeks. The only known sighting of it after this is in the Muckraker music video, so it's interesting to hear him talk about this guitar that was only in use for such a brief time.

Thank you to roman79 for the recording, and to Jacob Zenner for uploading this to the King Gizzard Facebook Fan Page.