Stu Mackenzie, image via YouTube

As frontman for King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard, Stu Mackenzie doesn’t have much time to focus on anything else. Since 2010, the shapeshifting Australian psych-rock disruptors have won a reputation as one of the hardest-working bands active today, and Mackenzie’s singular focus on the project has charged an unrelenting recording and touring routine. Last night, he redirected his inexhaustible creativity into a rare solo show.

Mackenzie’s solo show took place in the close quarters of Candy, a bar and café in his Melbourne hometown. The vocalist and multi-instrumentalist’s first independent show since 2015, per kglw.net, was a free, two-hour live modular synth set, navigating spacious radiance and cluttered, distorted hardstyle loops by manipulating a tabletop patchwork setup. While King Gizzard’s rare break from the road continues, Candy promises that Mackenzie’s public synth experimentation will be a recurring gig for “some Thursdays to come.”

In the past, Mackenzie has stressed that King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard’s vast sonic palette has always been about creating a capacious vessel for his creative interests. When asked how long he thinks the band will continue in Sleeping Monster, a 2022 documentary capturing the band’s work during the COVID-19 lockdowns, the frontman said, “I honestly, in the cheesiest way possible, hope it’s around until I die in some shape or form.”

“Even it becomes a completely and utterly different thing, I would love that. I’m going to be happy if it evolves, and grows, and changes forever. I’m a lifer. I mean, I think the whole point oof making Gizzard open-ended is so you can do it forever. Because I don’t need a side project, because everything can be King Gizzard, which I feel really grateful for.”

King Gizzard released their 27th studio album, Phantom Island, last June. A 12-month break in releases is notable for a band that famously released five records in a single calendar year, twice, and after a breakneck world tour in 2025, their only shows on the calendar for this summer are their second annual Field of Vision festival in Buena Vista, Colo. from Aug. 14-16 and a three-night return to Queens, N.Y.’s Forest Hills Stadium from Aug. 20-22. In their moment away from the spotlight, the band has been busy in the studio with solo projects like CAVS’ Sojourn and sessions with Tame Impala, Geese and Pond – not to mention their 28th album, which is apparently more modular techno and “done.”

Watch a fan-recorded video of Mackenzie’s solo show below.