King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard have announced their North American tour as part of their sure-to-be-epic 2018 following their five-album 2017 and breakout year. They first hit our desk when we saw them making their world television debut on Conan with “Lord of Lightning” and something absolutely switched us on for good. Two drummers, wild tones, and some crazy Aussie dudes making amazing rock.
The Australian band, formed in 2010, said during a performance for KEXP that their sound was inspired by Turkish folk music. Because of this, the band members restrung their guitars to sound like a Turkish instrument, the baglama. This technique of re-fretting guitars to sound like baglamas has been described by the band as “microtonal tuning” and can be heard all throughout the group’s album Flying Microtonal Banana, a reference to the band members’ shared yellow guitar.
On the heels of a transformative and ultra-productive 2017 (releasing five studio albums) Melbourne’s King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard will return to the U.S. and Canada this spring for a major cross country tour hitting nineteen cities. The band will play their largest venues to date such as LA’s Hollywood Palladium, San Francisco’s Warfield Theatre, and NYC’s Brooklyn Steel. As promised at the beginning of last the year, King Gizzard successfully released and unprecedented five studio album, all in which received critical acclaim and contributed to a whirlwind year for the band. Some benchmarks included their first Coachelle performance as well as their T.V debut on Conan as well as headlining sold out shows at the landmark venues, two nights at Chicago’s Lincoln Hall, and two nights at the New York City Webster Hall and San Francisco’s, The Fillmore.
King Gizzard’s 2017 album output included the release Flying Microtonal Banana ,Murder of the Universe,Sketches of Brunswick East, Polygondwanaland and Gumboot Soup. They’ll embark on their North American Tour in support of the LPs on May 31 in Los Angeles. The 19-date run continues throughout June in San Diego, San Francisco, Portland, Vancouver, Seattle and Missoula, Montana. More shows are slated in Milwaukee, Chicago, Detroit, Toronto, Montreal, Boston, Brooklyn and Philadelphia. The tour then wraps with nights in Asheville, Atlanta and New Orleans with a final show on June 22 in Austin, Texas.
King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard, 2018 Spring Tour Dates:
5/31 – Los Angeles,CA – Hollywood Palladium
6/1 – San Diego, CA – Observatory North Park
6/2 – San Francisco, CA – The Warfield
6/4 – Portland, OR – Crystal Ballroom
6/5 – Vancouver, BC – The Malkin Bowl
6/6 – Seattle, WA – Showbox Sodo
6/7 – Missoula, MT – Monk’s
6/9 – Milwaukee MI – The Pabst Theater
6/10 – Chicago, IL – Riviera
6/11 – Detroit, MI – Majestic Theater
6/12 – Toronto, ON – Danforth Theater
6/13 – Montreal, QC – Le National
6/14 – Boston, MA – Royale
6/15 – Brooklyn, NY – Brooklyn Steel
6/18 – Philadelphia, PA – Union Transfer
6/19 – Asheville, NC – Orange Peel
6/20 – Atlanta, GA – Variety Playhouse
6/21 – New Orleans, LA – Republic New Orleans
6/22 – Austin, TX – Stubb’s Outdoors – Waller Creek Amphitheatre
1st Photo-Credit: Sharon Alagna
Feature Image: Mauricio Alvarado
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