King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard came out heavy and loud to start the sixth show of their North American tour at Toronto’s Budweiser Stage, a covered outdoor amphitheater that seats more than 16,000 people.

The building looked pretty packed though did not appear to be sold out.

Gizz’s Joey Walker made the opening remarks as the band took the stage, noting that, “This is fucking sick.”

He also shouted out the opener for this leg of the tour, New York’s Geese, not to be confused with the jamband Goose.

The band pleased metal heads by opting for a pair off the 2019 LP Infest the Rats Nest in “Perihelion,” and “Venusian 2,” the latter the band built the pit into a frenzy over.

And the first six songs of the show were head bangers.

Next up was a pair of songs from 2023’s PetroDragonic Apocalypse or Dawn of Eternal Night, an Annihilation of Planet Earth and the Beginning of Merciless Damnation, in “Converge,” and “Witchcraft.”

Then came the “Great Chain of Being,” off 2017’s Gumboot Soup, this take starting out with a crowd clap while Stu rolled through the beginning riff.

Gizz returned to PDA with the thrash-themed “Dragon.”

This version featured a thunderous performance from drummer Michael “Cavs” Cavanagh. He capped it with a short solo on the kit to end the song, which garnered a “Thank You,” from Walker.

Finally, the show was to take a lightened turn.

And “Hypertension,” off 2022’s Laminated Denim, was the perfect vehicle for blending the band’s jammier side with their bent for metal.

“Like a red herring,

Laminated denim” - Stu Mackenzie on “Hypertension.”

Mackenzie and Walker went off on some deep improvisation, which included teasing “Hot Water,” off their 2014 classic I’m in Your Mind Fuzz.

This version did exceed its 15-minute studio length by about two minutes.

In the pause after Hypertension, Mackenzie thanked people for showing up.

“We are on the other side of the world!” he said, before Ambrose Kenny-Smith noted that “five people came,” the first time the band played in Toronto. The earliest show in KGLW.net’s records of a Toronto show is from May 9, 2014 at The Hideout, but Kenny-Smith noted the show on May 10 at Toronto’s Wrongbar and an apparently scathing review the band received.

He was corrected by his bandmates, before mentioning The Horseshoe Tavern, the site of another show the band played on May 10, 2014.

To bring things to the present, the band then played “Antarctica,” off the band’s latest LP, Flight b741, the band’s 26th album. Lyrics to the song had been quoted in the previous show’s closer, “The Dripping Tap.”

“I’m a polar bear in denial I can’t help but hate the heat,” - Craig “Cookie” Cook on “Antarctica”

The song does get vocal contributions from several members, including Cook, Mackenzie, Walker, bassist Lucas Harwood and Kenny-Smith, who also chimes in with some harmonica.

Walker shouted out to the band’s visual artist Jason Galea, who runs the projector and also does many of the band’s tour prints, including that night’s edition.

Kenny-Smith contributed lead vocals and harmonica to the next song the band played, also off Flight b741, “Field of Vision.”

Then it was a third song off the new album, “Raw Feel,” which also features multiple vocal contributions, including Walker and Mackenzie. Kenny-Smith quoted The Rolling Stones’ “Sympathy for the Devil,” with “Pleased to meet you,” he sang, as he worked the hand percussion.

Mackenzie pulled out his flute for the next song, which had been teased earlier, “Hot Water.”

It might have been a cool night in Toronto, but this version brought the temperature up a few degrees. It included a “Robot Stop” tease from Mackenzie on flute in the jam inside this version, foretelling what would come next.

Mackenzie waved his flute as he repeated “Hot water,” manipulated with the deep "toad’s breath" vocal effect he loves.

That kicked up the song to a thrashy end, with Cavanagh committing battery on his kit before the band shifted into “Robot Stop,” off their 2016 classic Nonagon Infinity. The smoky microtonal guitars and harmonica on this version kept the pit head banging. The song was slowed down and led into a “Hot Water” jam, with “Hot Water,” “Antarctica” and “Rats in the Sky,” quotes, and the pace was picked right back up.

Then “Gamma Knife,” also from Nonagon Infinity was played, and it contained “Motor Spirit” teases.

Cook was given another lead singing spot with “The Garden Goblin,” off 2022’s double LP Omnium Gatherum.

But first Cook told the story of a cat, Bruno, that died and was quickly replaced by another cat that was then also named Bruno.

The show then ended as their previous show in Portland, Maine, began, with an extended two-song “jamtronica” section at the band’s synthesizer station. This part, which was nearly 25 minutes long, included “Extinction,” and “Set,” off the 2023 LP The Silver Cord.

“Now it’s going to get real weird,” Kenny-Smith warned. Walker had his guitar strapped on for part of this section, while the band all huddled around the table but for Cavanagh, who was somewhat of a human drum machine at his kit.

King Gizzard was all locked as they adjusted knobs, switches and took the crowd to different places sonically. Mackenzie used a vocal effect that translated his vocals into synthetic sounds as the band segued into the debut of “Set.”

That was the perfect way to end this show, as the band did just “Slay the mighty set.”