[PHOTOS + REVIEW] King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard // UNSW Roundhouse // 06/07/19
It says a lot about tonight’s headliner that their two support acts are so wildly different from a stylistic standpoint, and yet both individually make sense as warm-ups within this context. Bitch Diesel are up first, sporting Little Red Riding Hood capes and making banshee shrieks reverberate across the floor. Theirs is a biting, garage-dwelling take on post-punk – all rumbling bass, driving drums and churning clean guitar. Although there’s a couple of scratched heads around the place, by the time they get into the groove of things they’ve managed to turn the lion’s share of the crowd into converts. By the time Mildlife arrive on stage some 30 minutes later, the crowd is raring to go. They take the ball that the Melbourne quartet have softly lobbed their way and promptly run with it. The dancefloor is alight when the band roll into the groove of “The Midnight Moon,” and a flute solo halfway through the show sends the front rows into an absolute tizzy. It’s a disco-tinged, funk-oriented affair of jazz-rock – one that might otherwise seem alien to a crowd of rock fans, but in this environment are given the full respect they deserve. Life is good.