KING GIZZARD & THE LIZARD WIZARD RAVE SET IS A WILD EXPLOSION OF EXPERIMENTATION

LIVE REVIEW | KING GIZZARD & THE LIZARD WIZARD ‘RAVE’ SET | ELECTRIC BRIXTON 1st November 2025 by Morris Shamah

Australian experimental psych-prog-rock-metal sextet King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard returned to London this month with a trio of unique shows – two ‘rave’ sets at Electric Brixton, and an orchestra show at Royal Albert Hall. KG&TLW are known primarily for their experimental, high-energy, improv-friendly rock shows, which is what they brought to their headline set at Wide Awake Festival the last time they visited London, in Summer 2024. The band has recently widened their live experience with these two new concepts, and the UK didn’t get a traditional rock n’ roll show from them at all this year. Their rave sets are inspired by their 25th studio album, 2023’s The Silver Cord – an electronic album composed and performed almost entirely on various synthesizers – and sees them taking this musical approach to their extensive back catalogue as well.

Opening the show was DJ Mera Bhai, an accomplished psych-rocker in his own right, who deftly wove classic rock and pop songs in with an impressive selection of varied and diverse beats and soundscapes. Shadowed by King Gizzard’s stage set up, he played to the crowd, starting off recognizable and casual and building the energy over the course of his set until the devoted crowd was rave-ready. took the entirety of his 90-minute set for the King Gizzard queue to enter the building, finish checking coats and bags, and get a drink – Electric Brixton is not set up for a full sell-out crowd to all arrive prior to doors – but by the time his set was over, everyone was ready for the main event.

King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard took the stage at midnight. They assembled around what is being called The Table – a large piece of staging filled with a variety of synthesizers, with stations for five band members to develop sound in real time, while Michael “Cavs” Cavanagh played drums behind them. This is not a DJ set – all the music is being made from scratch on stage, and the band is working together to create a sound that only exists at that moment. But it is not a rock show, not really. The band played the synth table like a singular being, with no indication what sound was coming from which band member, aside from the mostly heavily-processed vocals and the occasional electric flute courtesy of band leader and frontperson Stu Mackenzie. The 2 hour set was a full on cosmic odyssey that just happened to be played mostly on synthesizers. It’s heavy on danceability and builds, and lacking in guitars, but very much contained the DNA of a psych-rock show. Songs segued directly into one another, with only one clear break – which was immediately followed by a drum solo. The nine-song set was constantly morphing and evolving, always building – and yet only contained two tracks from the aforementioned electronic album The Silver Cord.

The crowd was both dancing and moshing at the same time, an amalgamation of two very different styles of live music enjoyment. Circle pits opened up, only to have people break into extravagant dance moves and backflips. Crowdsurfing was immediate and relentless, metal-style, and the surfers were flashing devil horns as they coasted over dressed-up raver groups. The rave set didn’t have an encore, but every song and sequence built to an incredible arena-level rock style white-light peak. The setlist – listed below from kglw.net – is full of notes, listing teases and quotes and debuts, like any other King Gizzard rock show.

King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard have always put experimentation and a diy attitude at the forefront of everything they do, and with this new style of live show they’ve continued to push the envelope of what a major level rock band can and should do. Their ‘rave’ set isn’t just an evolution of King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard – it’s an evolution of the sacred tradition of rock music itself. That is, until they evolve again two days later, trading the table for an orchestra and the nightclub for Royal Albert Hall.

The ‘rave’ set ended – appropriately – at 2:15am and was immediately followed by a DJ set from Gizzard guitarist Joey Walker, performing under the moniker Bullant B2B.

Setlist – from kglw.net

Gilgamesh -> Superposition[1] -> Blue Morpho -> Butterfly 3000 > Cyboogie > The Garden Goblin > Smoke & Mirrors[2], Magma[3] > Extinction

Footnotes:
[1] instrumental; unfinished
[2] Ambrose verses only
[3] First time played electronic

Show Notes:
Gilgamesh was labeled “Frankenstein” on the printed setlist. Only a small portion of Superposition without lyrics was played. Cyboogie was last played 2020-02-21. (240 show gap) Following The Garden Goblin, Amby asked the crowd if they wanted a drum solo, to which the crowd responded yes, and heavily drum-based improv followed. Only Ambrose’s verses in Smoke & Mirrors, which contained all of The Grim Reaper rapped over it as well as Bonkers (Dizzee Rascal) quotes, were performed. Magma was played electronic for the first time and contained a Smoke & Mirrors intro, an After Midnight (J.J. Cale) quote, and Smoke & Mirrors teases and quotes. At the end of the show, Amby chanted Bullant and shouted out Jason Galea.

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Morris Shamah

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