For my improvisational tastes, King Gizzard’s second of three Field of Vision marathon sets was the most epic.
We had a pretty good idea that the band might be busting out “Empty” from 2014’s I’m in Your Mind Fuzz. The band sound-checked the song on Day Zero of the fest within earshot of a gathering crowd held back at the gate to the concert field. Gizz hadn’t played the song since Dec. 19, 2014, in Australia, according to KGLW.net.
We got it after the band played album-mate “Slow Jam 1” which featured Ambrose Kenny-Smith blowing on his saxophone on an extended version of the song.
There were gems throughout, including Kenny-Smith’s Zach de la Rocha-esque delivery late in “Straws in the Wind,” foretelling of actual Rage Against the Machine quotes in the wee hours of the festival during King Stingray’s closing set Sunday night/Monday morning, or the jammed-out “Raw Feel,” where I first heard hints of the slow-boiling “Hot Water” to come.
But the real juice was King Stingray’s Yimila Gurruwiwi and Dimathaya Burarrwanga playing didgeridoos on the set-closing “Rattlesnake.”
I can’t thank the band and their manager, Michelle Cable of Panache, enough for allowing me access to the photo pit each show. They were the biggest shows I’ve gotten to shoot and during a festival that will surely go down as a Top 10 life experience for me — which is as much about the level of performance as the location and being able to experience the weekend with two close friends and my brother who happens to live in town and close to the venue.
Pure magic.
Here is the setlist from KGLW.net (Click here for full details):
Marathon Set 1: Gila Monster > Flamethrower, Planet B, Slow Jam 1[1] > Empty, Hot Wax, Superbug[2], Magenta Mountain > The Grim Reaper > Flamethrower[3] -> Swan Song, Welcome to an Altered Future > Digital Black > Han-Tyumi, The Confused Cyborg > Soy-Protein Munt Machine > Vomit Coffin > Murder of the Universe, Le Risque[4], Ice V, Raw Feel -> Hot Water, Boogieman Sam, Straws In The Wind, Pleura, All Is Known, Rattlesnake[5]
