The Australian band King Gizzard And The Lizard Wizard dazzled the packed and enthusiastic crowd at The Criterion in Oklahoma City for a very special Halloween concert on October 31st.
Opening act The Murlocs (Ambrose Kenny-Smith, Cal Shortal, Cook Craig, Tim Karmouche, Matt Blach) played songs off their Bittersweet Demons album (2021), Rapscallion album (2022) and more selections from the six albums the band has released so far and add to the fact that Ambrose Kenny-Smith and Cook Craig are doing double duty since they are also members of King Gizzard And The Lizard Wizard band.
Second opening act Leah Senior (Leah Senior, Andi Senior, Luke Brennan, Jack Robbins, Tam Matlakowski) played songs off the The Passing Scene album (2020), some new material, as well as selections from their previous two albums Pretty Faces (2017) and Summer's on the Ground (2015).
At precisely 10:00 p.m. the music of the Halloween Theme/Main Title (John Carpenter), followed by each band member of King Gizzard And The Lizard Wizard coming on stage in costume to a snippet of a prerecorded song. First up, Ambrose Kenny-Smith as a pimp to the song "P.I.M.P." (50 cent), Michael Cavanagh as the executioner to "Mother" (Danzig), Lucas Harwood as Buzz Light year to "You've Got a Friend in Me (Toy Story Soundtrack), Cook Craig as the cookie man to "C is for Cookie" (Sesame Street), throwing out cookies to the audience, followed by Joey Walker as Joey/Oompa Loompa (Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory) to "Oompa Loompa #1/Augustus" and finally Stu Mackenzie as a banana to "Hollaback Girl" (Gwen Stefani).
The band then dived right in, playing four songs from the Nonagon Infinity album (2016): "Robot Stop", "Gamma Knife", "People-Vultures" and "Mr. Beat". Nonagon Infinity album is very definitive of their sound, being a crowd favorite, but they genre hop through the rest of the albums released since 2012.
Three studio albums were released during the month of October prior to their Halloween show: Ice, Death, Planets, Lungs, Mushrooms and Lava from which two songs were played "Ice V" and "Lava" and Laminated Denim and Changes.
Leah Senior joined the band for four songs off the Murder of the Universe album (2017), "Alter Me II", "Altered Beast III", "Alter Me III", and "Altered Beast IV".
The band then followed with "Let Me Mend the Past" off the Float Along Fill Your Lungs album (2013). "Doom City" was next off the Flying Microtonal Banana album (2017) with Stu Mackenzie using one of his banana guitar to create the microtonal sound (like an electric sitar).
King Gizzard played two songs off their 16th album, K.G. (2020): "Minimum Brain Size" and "Oddlife". "Magenta Mountain" was next off the Omnium Gatherum double album (2022), followed by "Self-Immolate" off the Infest the Rats Nest album (2019)
King Gizzard closed out the evening with "Gaia" another song off the Omnium Gatherum double album.
King Gizzard delivered in 2 hours and 21 minutes, psychedelic rock, heavy metal, thrash metal, acid rock, experimental rock, alternative, garage rock, raga rock, progressive rock, jazz fusion; ALL IN ONE AMAZING EVENING!