King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard is at the point where fans will follow them anywhere — geographically or musically. For the Aussie genre-benders’ first gigs in eight months, that meant heading to the mountains of Buena Vista, Colo., for the second iteration of Field of Vision, a three-day, Gizz-curated camping festival at Meadow Creek that featured a globe-trotting lineup and nine hours of Gizz split into a trio of three-hour sets from Aug. 14-16.
It also meant going to space, sort of.
The best kept secret of Field of Vision II was that the festival doubled as a coming out party for Alien Metal, King Gizzard’s 28th album, which was released with little warning on the fest’s first full day. Attendees who arrived early on Thursday were treated to pre-release listening parties on the new Castle Stage, a side-stage that replaced the teeny Timeland Stage and boasted 360-degree sound and an immersive, semi-enclosed stage design.
The modular synth album takes the band’s signature psych rock sound and filters it through techno and EDM, down to the heavily processed, robotic and out-of-this-world vocals. Over the weekend, the band would debut six of Alien Metal’s eight tracks (a pair each night) and spent considerable time using Nathan, King Gizz’s ever-evolving modular synth table.
The Nathan segments, which grew from around 40 minutes on Friday to 50 on Saturday to a full hour on Sunday, became the improvisational centerpieces of the weekend. Saturday’s 14-minute version of the title track, for example, showcased Nathan at its best: a pulsing, hypnotic synth groove that built to a menacing peak when Joey Walker strapped on a guitar and started shredding. The band would also use the table to rework old songs in Nathan’s image. This included a lengthy, euphoric “Slow Jam 1” > “Ice V” > “Slow Jam 1” segment on Sunday that soundtracked the festival’s final, breathtaking sunset.
King Gizz may have been making music aliens might make, but the only band at Field of Vision that purported to actually be aliens was Angine de Potrine. The polka dot- and paper-mache mask-sporting duo went mega viral earlier this year and for most in attendance, this was the first chance to catch guitarist Khn and drummer Klek in the flesh. Judging just by the number of Angine t-shirts and polka-dot outfits in the crowd on Friday, fans were hyped for the mysterious Canadians. Musically, the duo’s angular, microtonal math rock was impressive: looping pedals allowed for spontaneous improvisation and the band had a massive sound for just two musicians. But the shtick — the costumes, the indecipherable gibberish, and the goofy stage presence — wore thin at times, making you wonder if the music would stand alone (or be as big of a sensation) without the presentation.
The band on the bill with the third largest contingent of t-shirts in the crowd was Denver death metal act Blood Incantation, which played two sets: an ambient “Otherworldly” late-night set at the Castle on Friday night that was marred by technical difficulties, and pre-Gizz mainstage set on Saturday that featured a full performance of the 2024 metal-meets-Pink Floyd album Absolute Elsewhere. The heavy, energetic set was met with raucous moshing and head-bangs. Even Gizz guitarist Walker had on a Blood Incantation shirt during Saturday’s headlining set.
Much like the inaugural Field of Vision, the band-curated lineup of supporting acts included groups from around the world: Australia (Melbourne’s lovely Folk Bitch Trio and punky Destrends), New Zealand (psych rock duo Earth Tongue, who spent the weekend slinging their merch and crowd-surfing before winning fans over with a heavy Sunday afternoon set), and Zambia (Zamrock originators WITCH); people Gizz had toured with in the past (La Luz, whose Shana Cleveland also played a solo set); a band signed to their own p(doom) Records (Primitive Ring); and old friends like Jay Weinberg, who hosted a drum clinic and sat-in with Gizz for “Hell” on Saturday. DJ Boogie Boudreaux and Jello Biafra also returned to DJ at the waterfront Phantom Island stage. Drag Night returned on Sunday, with drag performer Pattie Gonia opening for Gizz with a high-energy, politically charged drag show before introducing “Queen Gizzard.”
New this year were side-quests from members of Gizz, including bandleader Stu Mackenzie, who officially opened the Castle Stage on Friday with an improvised solo synth set that attracted a massive crowd; drummer Michael Cavanagh, who hosted a soothing Saturday gong bath; and Walker, who DJ-ed a high-energy Bullant set to close the Castle — and the festival — on Sunday night. And given the band’s current focus on synth sounds, it was apt that modular analog synth composer Lisa Bella Donna played sets on all three days, including a dreamy Saturday afternoon set.
On Friday, keyboardist Ambrose Kenny-Smith announced the worst-kept secret in Gizz lore: that the band has recorded an album with Billy Strings. Because Strings was off-tour and used to host his Renewal festival at Meadow Creek, fans speculated that he might sit-in to debut new music. You could even buy a “I Heard Billy Might Show Up” t-shirt in the festival-sanctioned bootleg marketplace Mirage City, which tripled in size this year. Strings never surfaced but the band had a few more surprises up their sleeves: debiting the oft-teased, never played live kraut-rock epic “The Land Before Timeland” from 2022’s Laminated Denim on Friday; and taking a first pass at “Gliese 710” from another 2022 album, Ice, Death, Planets, Lungs, Mushrooms and Lava. The song’s lyrics, “Watch the new star dance upon the night sky,” seemed fitting for a summer festival in the mountains and could be found on a tie-dye festival bootleg in Mirage City that sold out quickly.
Early into Friday’s show, Walker acknowledged what fans had been speculating: That there would be no repeats from last year’s Field of Vision. That was mostly true: the band played a few songs from year one with new arrangements: ironically, "Extinction" and “Gilgamesh,” which are on the band’s prior synth album, 2023’s The Silver Cord, got metal re-workings after being played on the table last year. “Ice V” and “Murder of the Universe,” meanwhile, were reprised as Nathan songs.
The self-imposed no-repeats rule led the band to dig deep and play songs that had been on the shelf: “Black Tooth,” “Dead-Beat,” “Organ Farmer,” “Ataraxia,” and “The Great Chain of Being” were among the weekend’s biggest bust-outs. They also got creative, splitting up psych rock jammer “Head On/Pill” across Saturday and Sunday for the first time ever.
The only repeat played straight was the most fitting: a loose, festival-closing take on its namesake, “Field of Vision.”
The band expressed their gratitude for the fans, the venue, and the other bands on the bill, throughout the weekend, noting several times that they’ll be back next year for Field of Vision III. Judging by the sold-out crowd, an ever-expanding big tent, and the impeccable vibes, the secret’s out: Field of Vision has arrived as a must-see summer festival.
