King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard Swarm Forest Hills Stadium With ‘Nathan,’ Max Weinberg & More

Following the success of Field Of Vision II, the second iteration of their music festival in Colorado, Aussie psychonauts King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard came east for a three-night run at Forest Hills Stadium in Queens for the second half of their two-town 2026 tour of the United States.

Since they are only performing at FOV II and in NYC, a great deal of their North American fans traveled to the Rockies and then east to Queens to get in as much Gizz as possible. When frontman Stu Mackenzie asked the crowd how many of them were from New York, maybe half the audience cheered. Tops.

On the other hand, it seems like at least as many people were at Field Of Vision. Over the course of the weekend, I spoke with a great many members of the Weirdo Swarm (the name for their devoted following), at the hotel, the pre-show meetup/fan merch festival and at the shows themselves, and I didn’t speak with a single person in NYC who had not been at FOV II.

A fan could be forgiven for thinking they might hear their favorite song at Forest Hills, even if it had just been played at FOV II, what with 2,000 miles or so between them. But KGLW made a point of keeping repeats at a minimum.

Over the first two nights in NYC, they only performed six songs they played at FOV II. Saturday’s show promised to offer up something different entirely. Night three was billed as a “Rave Set,” meaning, aside from Michael Cavanagh behind his drum kit, the other five members of the group were all huddled around a rectangular table serving as a platform for five distinct Eurorack modular synthesizer setups, all slaved to each other to share and coordinate BPM and control information. They simply branded the contraption, Nathan.

Each of the five Eurorack synths on the table top was made up of at least a dozen interchangeable standardized modules (Stu has referred to them as “synth guts”) that gave the boot to the 12-note chromatic scale all western music uses as a language, replacing it with a whole different vocabulary that revolves around voltage.

It is the most analog electronica performance practically any major touring act is performing in +1,800 capacity venues. The endeavor is clearly being driven by Stu and guitarist/vocalist Joey Walker, neither of whose previous experience shredding their guitars to bits is particularly relevant to the way they learned how to use Nathan. Getting here has been a journey that’s seen their skills develop hand-in-hand with an increasingly sophisticated rig.

The first appearance of Nathan of the weekend was during the second night of the run. Torrential downpours and flash flooding mired the run’s first night, making it unsafe to bring Nathan out. When they first brought the synth rig out, it was just Joey and Stu working the knobs and patch cables for a while. Seeing how much more involved Joey and Stu are with Nathan than any of their bandmates does give Kid A vibes. But there are worse comparisons to field with regards to music made with famously lopsided bandmember contributions.

At FOV II, guitar-based rock songs were incorporated into the electronica parts of their sets. During their first two nights in Queens, the exact opposite happened. “Extinction,” “Theia,” and “Gilgamesh,” all from 2025’s The Silver Cord, were given the thrash metal treatment a la Infest the Rats’ Nest or PetroDragonic Apocalypse.

During the Rave Set on the third night, they gave a wide array of material the Nathan-treatment, including a pair of tunes off 2015’s Paper Mâché Dream Balloon and an epic reinterpretation of “Perihelion,” one of the single best songs they’ve released on either of their thrash metal albums.

They capped the Rave Set off with a trio of songs off Alien Metal, their new techno album released on the first day of FOV II, including the self-titled track, and the first single, “Level 5.” Over the course of the two-hour performance, a total of eight songs were performed.

You’d be forgiven for thinking KGLW have two modes, guitar and techno. But you would be mistaken. When it comes to their guitar-based material, the vast majority is performed using conventional electric guitars. But they’ve released three albums using microtonal instruments and during the second night in Queens, the first handful of songs were performed using those customized instruments.

The distance from one fret to another on a guitar or bass is called a semitone, or half-step. The same musical increment distinguishing one piano key from the very next. On their microtonal instruments, they explore a space traditionally associated with classical Indian and Turkish music by utilizing additional frets between the frets. This allows them to play notes that don’t exist in western music and cannot be played on regular instruments.

The microtonal material has a gloomier bent to it than much of their other material, and after getting back to their regular instruments, KGLW dove into the musical highlight of the run, one of the few songs performed in both Colorado and New York, “Ice V.” The track appears on 2022’s Ice, Death, Planets, Lungs, Mushrooms and Lava, known as one of their most jam-heavy albums. Anyone who’s familiar with Phish’s “Ghost,” would find similar an extensive, leg-stretching jam, built upon the foundations of a funky groove, that serves as propellant for an exploratory deep space mission.

It is getting harder to deny that KGLW are a straight-up jam band. There is a vibrant KGLW economy following the band, almost exclusively consisting of fan-made art, clothing and novelties. Their discography now spans 28 full-length albums, making setlist statistics as convoluted and detailed as a hardcore music nerd could ask for. Their only knock as a certifiable jam band is having a frontman who really can sing.

After making the live debut of “The Land Before Time Land” at FOV II, they teased it during the first night in Queens during “Theia,” one of the Nathan tracks translated for guitar-driven performance. They performed “Shanghai,” which is a track off the electronica-heavy Butterfly 3000, but recorded before KGLW invented themselves a seventh bandmate.

The biggest surprise of the weekend was a guest appearance by Rock And Roll Hall of Fame inductee and Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band drummer Max Weinberg. Weinberg’s son, former Slipknot drummer, Jay Weinberg, has been sitting in with KGLW for a few years now and was just at FOV II. While he didn’t make it to NYC, his old man made the drive up from Atlantic City in his stead.

The Boss’ beat keeper joined the band on “Hot Water,” while Cavs simply sat by, seemingly amazed at the situation he’d found himself in. The performance in and of itself wasn’t notable, but for live music fanatics, this kind of guest appearance effectively acts like a shotgun blast of dopamine to the ol’ microtonal banana. Seeing an icon on stage with KGLW is for sure a bragging right none in attendance are likely to forget.

Kudos to those in the Swarm doing a seventh night in Brooklyn for a second Rave Set. I’d say that’s the kind of thing for younger fans, but that would mean ignoring the balding, gray-haired, Social Security-eligible fan I saw crowd surfing over the rail.

It must be said that the Rave Set felt anticlimactic and would have been better on the front end of the run. Although KGLW has earned a long leash from their fanbase when it comes to sonic exploration, those in the Weirdo Swarm do so under the assumption that the guitar-based stuff is still the Single Player Campaign and their work with Nathan is simply a side-mission.

For as loyal a fanbase as they have, if that formula shifts too much in the techno direction, there’s a reasonable chance their fans’ enthusiasm would wane, at least temporarily. That said, there are plenty of fans who attended the third show in Queens with plans to take in a second straight night of KGLW techno at Under the K Bridge Park in Brooklyn.

In light of the fact that the Brooklyn gig was added well after the Queens run was booked, there’s a good possibility the numbers and I have come to different conclusions. But their hyper-animated audience was without question noticeably more subdued during the Rave Set than they were during the first two shows at Forest Hills Stadium.

A fan will never get everything they want out of a KGLW show, or even three of them. They just have too much material. But their run at Forest Hills Stadium did a good job highlighting the vast swath of territory covered throughout their discography.

The band is playing at their absolute highest level of musical proficiency to date. Diehards were rewarded with a limited degree of overlap between Queens and Colorado, and after three summers in a row at the century-old tennis arena, Forest Hills seems to have firmly established itself as the East Coast Command Center of King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard.

Setlists (via KGLW.net)

August 20

Set: Extinction[1], Converge > Witchcraft, Inner Cell > Loyalty > Horology, Evil Death Roll, Theia[2], The Reticent Raconteur > The Lord of Lightning > I’m In Your Mind > I’m Not In Your Mind > Cellophane > The Balrog, Straws In The Wind, Open Water, Float Along – Fill Your Lungs

Notes:

• [1] Metal arrangement
• [2] Rock arrangement

Scheduled opening band Die Spitz’s set was cancelled and King Gizzard’s set started late due to a severe weather shelter in place order. The band walkout music was H.O.O.D by Kneecap. Extinction was performed in its metal arrangement and contained Flamethrower quotes from the extended mix. Evil Death Roll was introduced as being “called Cyboogie” and contained Head On/Pill, The Land Before Timeland and Ice V teases, as well as The Lord of Lightning teases followed by lightning strikes from the storm. Theia was performed in its rock arrangement and contained a Motor Spirit jam, Float Along – Fill Your Lungs quotes, and The Land Before Timeland and The Lord of Lightning teases. The Reticent Raconteur and The Lord of Lightning, which were played for the first time since 2025-05-25 (50 show gap), had lightning strike as they began. During I’m Not In Your Mind, Ambrose sung unknown, possibly improvised lyrics. Cellophane contained Am I In Heaven? and Witchcraft teases. The Balrog contained Am I In Heaven? teases. Float Along – Fill Your Lungs contained a Dragon jam with lyrics. Shanghai and Cyboogie, both on Nathan, were on the printed setlist after Horology but were not performed.

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August 21

Set: Rattlesnake, Static Electricity, East West Link, Ataraxia, Ice V -> Altered Beast I > Alter Me I > Altered Beast II, Gliese 710, Hot Water[1], Kepler-22b > Shanghai > Cyboogie, Venusian 1, Venusian 2, Gilgamesh[2], Gila Monster

Notes:

• [1] Max Weinberg on drums
• [2] Metal arrangement

Rattlesnake contained Horology and Hot Water teases, Sleep Drifter quotes, and a Billabong Valley jam with lyrics. East West Link was played for the first time since 2024-09-09 (77 show gap). Ice V contained Blindness (The Fall) teases. Altered Beast I contained an Alter Me intro. Hot Water featured Max Weinberg, Jay Weinberg’s father and drummer of Bruce Springsteen’s E-Street Band, on drums with Cavs playing Ambrose’s congas. Following Hot Water, Joey quoted “We’re not worthy!” from Wayne’s World. Shanghai contained Grow Wings and Fly teases and quotes. Before Venusian 1 the band started a chant of “Nick Craig” which was accompanied by teases of Break Stuff (Limp Bizkit) and a quote of I Want Candy (The Strangeloves). Venusian 1 was introduced as a song about being in a band with your best mates. Gilgamesh was performed in its metal arrangement and contained Du Hast (Rammstein) quotes. The Fourth Colour was on the printed setlist after Cyboogie but was cut.

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August 22 (Rave Show)

Set: Sense[1] > Slow Jam 1[1] -> Perihelion[1] -> Muddy Water[1] -> The Bitter Boogie[1], Level 5 -> Rapid Alpha Decay -> Alien Metal

Notes:

• [1] Electronic arrangement

Moktar was originally set to open this show but had to drop out due to visa issues. Slow Jam 1 featured Joey on percussion. At the start of Level 5 and the end of Alien Metal, vocal samples from Runnin’ With the Devil (Van Halen) were played. Alien Metal contained Rapid Alpha Decay quotes and featured Stu and Joey on guitar and Lucas on bass guitar. Blue Morpho was on the printed setlist after Alien Metal but was not performed.