Words by The Fourth Colour (Rowan)

Hey everyone, it’s your friendly neighborhood setlist nerd @thefourthcolour here with the second installment of the King Gizzette’s monthly Nice V column. Once a month, one of the amazing volunteers from our site will put together five Gizz tracks/shows/whatever (perhaps tangentially related, perhaps not) and write about them. With that said, off we go. My five selections fall under a common theme of August 2025 live performances: songs in a non-“standard” or deviant arrangement from their basic studio form. If that doesn’t make sense, hopefully it will after reading!

Going chronologically through the 2.5-week span I’m selecting from, my first pick is the performance of perhaps my favorite Gizzard song, "Crumbling Castle," from Forest Hills Stadium, August 1, 2025, featuring the Orchestra of St. Luke’s. (Here’s the Gizz Tapes link, selectable between Internet Archive AUD and official SBD). Along with the other four shows performed at Forest Hills as of now, I attended this show, and the orchestra experience was really a blast. Hearing the (amazing!) new Phantom Island material spring to life in a live context, followed up by the classics we all know and love supplemented/reimagined with orchestral flourishes, was really an experience. In the case of "Crumbling Castle," the already complex and multi-textured polyrhythmic psych-prog masterpiece was further enhanced with layers of violin sweeps and appropriately placed brass blares. The main event here, though, is the outro, performed for the first time with the full song on this tour. The rest of the band leaves the stage and the “I don’t want to be a crumbling, crumbling, crumbling castle” ultra-doom-metal dirge is transformed into a Cavs showcase with the orchestra covering the melodic elements. Without the usual segue into "The Fourth Colour" (a favorite of mine, if you couldn’t tell by my username), and with the outro only previously heard on the Polygondwanaland studio recording (and interestingly paired with some versions of "Doom City" in November 2017), the song ends on a much more menacing note than usual. Overall, this particular performance of "Crumbling Castle" is typically strong and energetic. Of course, I was overjoyed to experience my favorite song for the first time live, and my positive view of this performance is likely influenced by my real-time reaction. I will have some picks without attendance bias, I promise, after one more…

…the performance of the synth table rave arrangement of "Sense" from the very next day, again at Forest Hills Stadium, August 2, 2025 (Gizz Tapes link). This was the second of five (nice symmetry to this post!) total performances, so far, of this arrangement. Driven by pulsing electronic beats from “Nathan”, this version couldn’t be more different from the laid-back and sparse original version off Paper Mâché Dream Balloon (itself performed 19 times from 2019-2024). Sense kicked off the four-song rave sequence of this show, typical for modern shows featuring a combination of the band’s current style segments (loosely defined as metal, microtonal, rave, and everything else). This show was the only typical (non-orchestra) show on the US tour, save for the three-day Field of Vision festival (more on that later). Some awesome rave improv, epitomizing the best of it (at least preceding the Fall 2025 rave tour!) leads to a smooth -> to "The Grim Reaper," then -> "Set" -> "Extinction", all worth your time.

My next pick is from four days later, on August 6, 2025, Ravinia Pavilion (Gizz Tapes link). For the Phantom Island shows throughout the summer and fall tour, the orchestra would take a short break after the album and before the “classic” songs. "Grow Wings and Fly" would lead to an improvisational jam of varying proportions, before a regular Gizzard song (or two) was performed by the band as an intermission. No song was used as an intermission twice. For this show, the chosen song was the rock arrangement of "Theia," the third performance in this style (though the 8/23/24 and 11/2/24 acoustic versions are direct prototypes). The studio version of the song on The Silver Cord, as well as most live versions, is typical of the band’s “rave” stylings, very unlike this peacefully groovy arrangement somewhat akin to "The Land Before Timeland" and "Lonely Steel Sheet Flyer" musically. After an initial "Theia" jam in the "Intermission Jam," this nearly 20-minute highly improvisational "Theia" is a ton of fun. Teases include "Vomit Coffin," "The Land Before Timeland," and ZZ Top’s "Sharp Dressed Man," along with a full-blown "Field of Vision" jam. There’s a lot to hear here, and in the other "Intermission Jam"/intermission song combos from the 2025 Phantom Island shows.

My next pick skips us nine days later, to the first night of the Field of Vision festival: August 15, 2025, Meadow Creek (Gizz Tapes link), and the performance of "Intrasport." Like all three 2025 performances of the song, this is a deviation from the sound of the album version and the 2024 performances by not featuring the synth table at all. This results in a more straightforward, typical Gizzard microtonal song approach, while still retaining the song’s undeniable energy and rhythmic pulse. I have to say, I prefer this arrangement (however similar it may be…I recognize this pick is the biggest stretch to fit my theme, for the record). Joey’s comments after the song about his resemblance to Oasis’ Liam Gallagher (by playing a tambourine and singing with no guitar on this song) are hilarious as well. Overall, this is just a killer, standard performance of a fan favorite, with less of an electronic flair. (Although I must say, I prefer just about every other song on K.G. and L.W. to this one; it’s a fun song, but I think "Static Electricity" should have stayed in its place in the tracklist before "Intrasport" replaced it last-minute. But who am I to judge?)

That leads us to my final selection: two days later on the final night of FOV: August 17, 2025, Meadow Creek (Gizz Tapes link), for the band’s acoustic performance of "Aerodynamic." This is mainly notable for being the only song off Phantom Island to be performed without orchestral accompaniment since the album’s release. Indeed, the song really benefits from a simpler, spacious acoustic arrangement, fitting perfectly in this short acoustic segment to open the final day of the festival. Since the album was released, this was one of my favorite songs, right up there with "Spacesick," "Sea of Doubt," "Silent Spirit," and "Panpsych"… jeez, that’s half the album. Can you tell I like the modern material?

That’s all for now - keep an eye on the King Gizzette for future Nice V write-ups. Thanks for reading, and see you all at Forest Hills!