The Red Rocks marathon shows were the pinnacle of the King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard live performance. The band have always been regarded for their high energy live shows, which for years had been building from a more standard promotion of the newest material, into an acknowledgement of their large and diverse discography. It was finally time to put it all together, to look back at every album and construct a massive multiple-hour set in celebration — where better to do it than the iconic Colorado jam venue? Originally announced in 2019 and booked for March 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic would see the performances delayed for over two years.
The gap was enough for seven new albums, which had the band re-emerge with yet another significant stylistic shift into a new golden era, including a whole new demographic of fans; who, as the marathon sets finally approached for real were suddenly faced with the consideration of just how meaningful the wait had been.
So, Rigo Garcia, who was to re-unite after a couple of years with friends Sammy and Jacob Rich at the show, decided to capture the moment — producing the excellent fan documentary, 1063 Days: A King Gizzard Mini Documentary.
The plan was loose. Unsure about filming at the show itself, most of the footage used was shot the day before at a fan meet-up organised by the Gizzverse Podcast creators Tommy O'Neill and Brian Cintron at the Monkey Barrel in Denver, likely the largest ever of its kind. Intending to find out how much the lives of various fans had changed in the 1063 days between tickets originally going on sale to the date of the first show, what they got instead was a passionate and free-wheeling exposition of what it means to be a fan of King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard.
One great example is an interview-ee who had expressed their dedication by hiking 1500 miles to be able to make it to the performance. This fan never managed to secure a ticket and had accepted not being able to attend; but passion for King Gizzard has an amazing tendency to spread, and once their local hiking community found out how disappointed he would be to miss out, they rallied together to find a ticket. Providence had it that he also encountered the band:
"...just met them, and its like proof more than anything. You kind of get the feeling before you meet them, that they're actual class-act guys, real stand-up people trying to move through the world in the best, least harmful way they can."
Other established members of the fanbase were present, such as a couple of the guys behind Cygoodies; the custom limited run psych-rock merch creators/distributors with a strong focus on King Gizzard. They contributed a lot of thoughts on not only what their merch means:
"A lot of it is that spirit that theres a lot of generosity amongst the fanbase. Giving stuff to people, or making something that really speaks to somebody. At the end of the day it's just a metal pin or whatever, but it speaks to this music, it speaks to this band. Its everything that it's about, cause you never know what somebody's going through in their life, and this music speaks to them."
But the multitudes of King Gizzard:
"It speaks to this thing inside of you that's sort of yearning for a little bit more, that's kind of questioning. It's a little bit off the wall, but it also doesn't give a fuck. It's sort of punk, but then it's also super light-hearted. Like the whole Weirdo Swarm aspect, embrace that inner-child silliness inside you. Also embrace the rage thats inside of you. Theres a lot of philosophical shit about it, but then it's also very playful. So it's hitting on all these things that just encompass the human experience in a multitide of ways, it hits that broad spectrum of things and I think people just grab onto that"
"It's like this wild communal thing. Its like today's Grateful Dead in a way. It's like a certain kind of fire thats been lit by this torch thats been passed. Maybe the torch looks different, but the fire is the same."
It's unsurprising that they made a comparison to the Grateful Dead, as the tour attached to these shows was perhaps the first real example of King Gizzard as a 'jam-band', not only reflecting their new approach in studio but unifying all the associated phenomena that originated with The Dead: fans following for as many shows as possible, recording and sharing the performances, and the 'lot' culture of meeting up outside the venue before the show.
They aren't the first to make the comparison, but there will always only be one Grateful Dead, who are unique for pioneering the many aspects of how they came to operate; modern similarites are well-earned but miss that spark of being the first. Deadheads are rightfully protective of the title being thrown around too lightly; of course there are many valid ways to compare the two bands, especially now with the Official Bootlegger scheme that sanctions fans to produce their own copies of live recordings — but it is important to let each band have and generate their own legacies too.
Another attendee had a very rational take:
"I mean how big were The [Grateful] Dead ten years into their stuff in 1975? Pretty big! They were selling out everywhere... I mean give it a couple of decades, then go to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame."
Though Brittany Todd, who has one of the bigger presences on Twitter among King Gizzard fans, managed best to sum up why we all listen:
"I think Gizzard just stands for everything I stand for, the climate crisis, to women's rights, human rights, indigenous rights. Everything they write about, their music, their whole essence is about making this world a better place — but also just being badasses and saying 'fuck the system', and 'fuck the world and everything that's happening' because this world is bullshit."
If that resonates, then we can only recommend watching the full documentary.
It even earned a rare endorsement from the band themselves, who Tweeted out their love for the creators of this work that so meaningfully conveys what it means to be a fan of King Gizzard; something all of us at kglw.net care deeply about.