There was a significant stretch in the band’s history when they didn’t make metal. Yet if there was any indication that this was a path they were capable of going down, it was “Road Train.” It is the ninth and final song on the band’s infinitely looping album Nonagon Infinity, and is the bridge between the end and beginning. While not as heavy as future songs (such as “The Great Chain of Being” a year later) its drums were distinctly intense and paired with the Mad Max-esque imagery of fuel guzzling trucks barrelling down roads in an apocalyptic wasteland. If you saw it live, you understood its power, especially between the two drummers. “Road Train” was as heavy as it got by 2016 Gizzard standards.
In an ATO press release, Stu said the following of the song’s inspiration. “In the Australian desert, in the outback, there are what’s called road trains, which are these massive trucks pulling heaps of carriages that can end up being 50 meters long. They drive on the road really, really fast, and they’re deadly, with these bars in the front to kill kangaroos and anything else in their path.” “Road Train” (initially titled “Motorhead Ending”) was recorded by Wayne Gordon at Daptone Records in Brooklyn, New York with vocals recorded by Michael Badger.
The first appearance of the song was on the album Nonagon Infinity where it served as the final track which would send the listener back into “Robot Stop.” It also features a riff first heard in the Quarters! track “Lonely Steel Sheet Flyer.” On the vinyl version of Nonagon Infinity, it is given its own unique ending where we hear how the track connects to “Robot Stop.” When creating the cover for Nonagon Infinity, Jason Galea originally envisioned the artwork to show a road train with a sword through its center. This artwork was later used on the poster for Gizzard’s 2016 European tour. Every song on Nonagon Infinity was meant to have a music video as part of the Nonagon Infinity movie project, though the video for “Road Train” was never finished, let alone described or hinted at.
While many of Nonagon’s songs were played at gigs upwards of a year before their release, “Road Train” was held back. According to an interview with Eric “Road Train” was a hard song to keep up with due to its heavy drumming. “We’re kind of still working out a few of the songs. Some of them are really hard to play live…” The earliest known performance of “Road Train” was on 2016-06-25 at the Triffid in Brisbane; the last song, along with “Mr. Beat,” to be debuted from the album (not counting “Invisible Face” and its full debut in 2023). Throughout the year, the song was used as a way to wrap back to “Robot Stop” at the end of the set, though sometimes they’d opt for 2014’s “Hot Water” instead. A live version of “Road Train from 2016 was also included in a promo for Gizzfest.
In 2017 “Road Train” and its companion track “Wah Wah” disappeared from rotation. Unlike “Wah Wah” however, it would have to wait longer to get back into the spotlight. It wasn’t until 2018-10-09 at the C3 Stage in Guadalajara that “Road Train” drove back in, once again leading into “Robot Stop'' after “Wah Wah.” It would continue to do that (occasionally without “Wah Wah'' such as on 2018-11-29) until 2019.
“Road Train” began to serve a new purpose: suite closer. That year the band began to play a three song run of “The River” > “Wah Wah” > “Road Train,” This sequence ended up at the beginning of the 2020 concert film Chunky Shrapnel. There was no need to move into “Robot Stop” anymore and its original outro was scrapped. 2020 saw two performances of the song as “The River'' > “Wah Wah'' > “Road Train'' and “Wah Wah'' > “Road Train,'' but the song wouldn't reappear until after the pandemic on 2022-04-26 at the Gundlach-Bundschu Winery in Sonoma, CA where it stood strong next to “Wah Wah.” Since then, the song has mostly been a closer for different suites though 2023-08-20 proves there can be exceptions to the rule.