Live Review: King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard – 2nd November 2025 – Electric Brixton, London, UK
2 min read
Sunday night King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard graced the stage at Electric Brixton for the second night of the ‘Rave Shows’ in London. Two nights of hardcore electronic music performed entirely analogue on stage in front of a sold-out crowd. Saturday night’s affair played out as a genuine dance music night, finishing around 3am, but Sunday was a little more laid back.
The evening opened with Aussie psych-rock band ORB soothing the audience with a style that called back to King Gizzard’s own roots. Continuous, arguably never-ending songs and jams flowed in and out of spacey and riotous. The lads were on point, changing time signatures and tempos with expert precision. Mind Over Matter was a standout moment from their set, as was the frontman’s sign-off of “bottoms up!” to which he downed whatever can of beer he was drinking.
With the impressive analogue synths set up front and centre, King Gizzard emerged in a foggy sea of hazy blue lights. With the flashing lights of the synths and the trippy inter-dimensional camera trickery happening behind them, the stage looked like a spaceship and was about to sound like one. “Everyone have fun last night?” singer Stu Mackenzie asked the writhing crowd. “Let’s do it again!”
2.02 Killer Year began after one hell of a buildup, the piling synths complimented by the usual bassist and drummer on their typical instruments. People began crowd surfing instantaneously, the beat non-stop. There was no real telling when one song ended, and another began. Despite analogue synth’s notoriety for being unpredictable the guys never looked as though they were out of control, and the tunes never veered wildly at odd points. It was free but rehearsed. The audience above on the balcony danced throughout, as did those in the pit. Occasionally it broke into moshing when the drops really came.
Dreams and Shanghai were early hard hitters, while the electronic arrangement of Sense saw Mackenzie take to the flute for a more distorted and dissonant attempt at the melody. Saxophone appeared briefly, reverberating across the ambience. The transitions were seamless, the energy palpable. By the end, as well as calls to free Palestine, Mackenzie half joked to the audience. “See you at the Albert Hall, yeah?” From electronic to orchestral, King Gizzard can really do it all.
Set List:
2.02 Killer Year
Dreams
Shanghai
Flamethrower (Outro)
Magenta Mountain
Sense (Electronic Arrangement)
Kepler-22b
Writer and Musician, Ryan Bulbeck has been published with a number of online publications, and has worked with a myriad of great artists, both as a performer, and as a producer. His most recent band The 295 are still active, playing shows around the UK.
