PHOTOS: King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard Returns Psychedelic Rock to SVN West (Formerly Fillmore West) in San Francisco

Photos and review by Ronny Kerr.

Review of psych rock band King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard performing a sold out show at SVN West in San Francisco on Thursday, August 15, 2019.

In pursuit of sonic experimentation, King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard are wildly prolific. Since 2012, the band has released more than a dozen albums exploring jazz, punk, psychedelia, microtonality, metal, and beyond. Perhaps no band could be as fitting to return live music to SVN West—once the historic Fillmore West home to Grateful Dead and their psychedelic San Francisco contemporaries, more recently a car dealership, and now music venue once again.

King Gizzard kicked off their second night at the venue with the first three tracks from their newest release, Infest the Rats’ Nest; the first, Planet B, converts a pun beloved by climate change marches everywhere (“there is no planet B”) into a thrash metal anthem that could sit comfortably alongside Motörhead, early Metallica, and Slayer.

For the following hour-and-a-half, the sold out venue swarmed with sweat and bodies, pockets of mosh pits swirling in and out of existence while wave after wave of crowd surfers glided toward the stage. King Gizzard rarely stopped to rest, the seven-piece group (including two drummers in matching red jumpsuits) blasting out their wild psych rock that seemed to meander through southern blues, lo-fi garage, and even hints of synth pop.

Opening for King Gizzard was Stonefield, an Australian band also on a world tour, promoting their new album Bent. The quartet of sisters puts forth hard rock less eccentric and psychedelic as the headliners but no less powerful.

See photos of the show below and check out King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard’s upcoming tour dates in North America and Europe here.