I felt compelled to make an account to post a lengthy first-time review from an enthusiastic fan who attended the show and not someone posturing political messages on an obscure message board because their feelings got hurt. Should not be a surprise when King Gizz re-iterates a stance they have explicitly stated in the past and, ironically enough, this same message was in the announcement for this tour! This was an outstanding live performance, one of the best I have seen live, with a remarkably diverse setlist showing King Gizz at their absolute best and most dialed in yet: "I can see everything, I can be in the music!"

The second NYC show of the weekend kicked off with U.S Girls opening for the sold out Forst Hills crowd, featuring a solo trek by their vocalist from the stage to the top of the amphitheater while the rest of the band jammed on! The weather for this event was incredible and the fans were primed for an amazing night after the Friday orchestral show. Gizz ramped up early on with some metal before sunset featuring an amazing Cavs drum solo during Gaia and a rare - for these days - performance of Predator X. The night prior, the KGLW instruments were moved closer to the front of the stage to allow room for the orchestra. This meant those close enough to the stage had an opportunity for an intimate drum cam experience, but no such luck tonight. As always, the acoustics of FH and the energy of GA floor is unmatched, something I have only experienced elsewhere at Red Rocks; inflatable beach balls, gators, and unicorn horns (?) flew around while fans crowd surfed towards the stage. Supercell featured the usual Galea lightning bolt visuals while the boys created enough electricity to power all of FH, stirring the crowd into a frenzy. Superbug, up next, is a personal favorite of mine (the Stanford 2024 opener in Frost Amphitheater is the definitive version*) and this was my first time seeing it live. This song always hits like a truck, and they rocked this one - from the recognizable opening riff that gets slower and slower and slower as the song progresses through its many choruses.

*the closest King Gizzard will get to, in my opinion, recording or playing a doom or sludge metal song

From here we move forward to other areas of the extensive KGLW discography and land on Minimum Brain Size; the irony of my opening of this review and the message of this song - one specifically referring to selfish, misguided fools who are "actually the worst of the low" and "will not be missed" - is not lost on me. Anyways, MBS is only the first stop on our freaky transition towards more of their older material with Oddlife following. Life certainly is strange, but where we headed next just might be stranger: The Table. There has been tremendous growth in Gizz's ability to play and remix the extended editions of The Silver Cord live, but also playing previously released traditional material remixed as synth arrangements. Sense is played for the second time on the table, previously debuting at the Ancient Theatre in Plovdiv, with both instances transitioning directly to The Grim Reaper. All their prior experiences with the table build into an epic 45-minute synth session which might be their most complete set to-date. Stu tips us off to the opening song, if you could not already tell, through a vocaloid "It's in vogue to be feckless." Techno gongs and bells ring out during the arrangement, while the transition to Grim Reaper is done perfectly. Stu, once again, tips us off early by bringing the flute into the mix and one-by-one the members leave the table to return to their original instruments. Amby is very vocal about the influences for this song by featuring not one, not two, but THREE separate Beastie Boys' teases in the final quarter of the song with an explicit appreciation once completed. Synth Gizz is not done as we return to the table with Set, keeping the crowd moving. We reach the end of our synth journey with a transition into Extinction with its usual slow, measured opening into cascading layers of synth and drums. Careful listening is rewarded as they slowly layer in a sample of Daft Punk's Human After All around 6 minutes in, which fits perfectly with the song's Verse 4 ending lyric of "The last thought I think: 'But, am I human?'" that becomes much more recognizable after the drop. We are only missing the "Human, human, human, human; Human, human, human, human; Human, human, human, human; Human, human, human, after all." All synth-arranged songs were accompanied by fantastic visuals and lighting courtesy of Galea and T. 

We say thanks to Nathan and goodbye to The Table as the band returns to their instruments. One thing that has been missing from this set so far has been Gizz's ability to jam out and insert lyrics and elements of different songs during the only currently being played, or just generally insert whatever they want, whenever they want! We get this, with interest, on Wah Wah, including a The River intro (with Crumbling Castle teases) and a short return to Extinction through Stu quotes and teased notes. In case you were worried the rest of the night would be spent slowing down, well get ready for Road Train! The crowd was running with "26 gears of petrol power" for this one and we all screamed every refrain. What follows is a short and classic rendition of Let Me Mend the Past from Amby. While my group and those around us tried to predict the next song, Gizz made sure no one could get the pick 'em right by blasting straight into Altered Beast IV. Reviewing the previous times this was played live, it was the first time in an isolated set (i.e., not preceded by Altered Beast I-III), so a bit of Gizztory was made this night. The visuals during this song were particularly amazing and, combined with the music, made for an other-dimensional OBE. We returned to Omnium Gatherum, which ended up being the most played album of the night, via an extremely smooth Ambergris! Listening to this in headphones from the live stream, I can hear Amby's quiet maracas shaking in my left ear, while Joey's lyrics flow like honey all around me. At this point, I was worried we would not get a chance to sing any Flight b741 songs as a crowd of 13,000, but the band does not disappoint as they change gears with Sad Pilot followed directly with Rats In The Sky. We are taken on a groovy blues journey with all members of the Gizz family performing vocals on both songs.

We still have some fuel left to burn, so why not burn it all at once, as brightly as possible with a face-melting version of Hypertension (well, feet-melting version since there were a few Gizz dawgs out barking during this song). This was a rush of adrenaline after our blues excursion back to high intensity riffs. Watching the live stream, its' incredible audio quality mirrored my live experience, with the camera capturing the fervor of the band and the crowd. The pressure grew and grew until "Hypertension is all that’s left!" exploded from Stu followed by Extinction teases and quotes. Afterwards, the song became so infectious our group had no choice but to join the chaotic mosh to lines of "I caught that hypertension; In another dimension; Inside my time invention" Up was down, left was right, but all that mattered to me was hearing that chorus just one more time as close to the stage as I could before the end of the set.

I do not know if I have any more words to describe my experience or express the emotions seeing this live. I was with two KGLW first-timers and they both left the show completely changed. My fifth time seeing King Gizz at Forest Hills and my sixth time overall and I can only hope the next one will be as good. This is the first time I have posted on this site, much less writing a review of a studio album or live experience, so I appreciate you reading this if you made it this far.