060423 King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard, Pelham, TN

On June 4th, 2023 I woke up hot, sweaty, uncomfortable, and happy.  By the early hour of 7am the sweltering Pelham, Tennessee sun had already made an oven out of my tent and the comfort of my slow-leaking air mattress had long since vanished, but these physical transgressions were suffered in service of a four-night run seeing King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard at The Caverns, so like I say, I was happy to be there.

This was day four, and if it was going to be anything like day three then m’lady and I were in for another long day of unsuccessfully chasing shade around the campsite, so after lingering over a couple of coffees bought from the why-is-the-coffee-kiosk-so-far-from-the-tents coffee kiosk we decided to drive into the neighbouring town and kill the hottest part of the day over a long, lingering lunch.  

So we hopped in the rental car, turned the air conditioning on full and drove as slowly as possible into Monteagle.  Once we got there we drove up and down the main drag (again, very slowly) before deciding on a Wendy’s.  The food was sub-par but their air-conditioning gets four stars.

The temperature was somewhat more forgiving by the time we made it back to camp.  Then the clouds rolled in.  The impressive bout of lightning and thunder that followed delayed the beginning of the show until just after 9pm which was just fine by me, ‘cause it meant that the opening set by San Francisco’s lousiest band Kamikaze Palm Tree was cancelled.  Seeing them three times already was about eight times too many.

While Gizzard had played inside the cave for the first two nights, the final two shows took place just outside the mouth of the cave, on a large stage that seemed permanently nestled in a natural amphitheatre.  M’lady and I had watched from the back of the lawn the night before but for this one we had assigned seats on the “floor”.

So after skipping along the woodland path that led from campsite-to-venue we got our ticketless tickets punched and found our plastic seats down the hill very near the stage (row S, seats 19-20).  I ran down the rest of the hill and ducked inside the cave to use the bathroom and to grab a beer.  It was nifty to see the cave when it was empty.  I paused to marvel at the subterranean music hall for a sip or two before starting back up the hill and just as I did I heard the band starting up.

KGLW had confirmed the weekend-long rumour the night before: this final show of the Cavern run would be 100% all-acoustic.  The keyboardist even managed to get his hands on an old upright piano.  The Gizzards spent a lot of time laughing and joking around and it seemed like they were really having a blast.  To be honest, it felt more like being at a rehearsal than watching a gig.  At one point the frontman said he had to go to the bathroom and told the band to wait until he got back before starting the next song.  The guitarist started the song anyway.  “It doesn’t matter,” he yelled, “this one has a really long intro!”  Once the singer had left the stage the other guitarist stepped up to the mic and said, “Okay everyone, Stu’s gone so to hell with his song, let’s play something else.”  And they did.  Hilarious.

Actually, I’m pretty sure that Stu ended up getting rather drunk.  Near the end of the show he started rambling about religion, telling the crowd, “Jesus was all right; I like Jesus.  As a matter of fact I want to f*** Jesus.  I wish Jesus was dead…”  In a flash one of the other band members leapt to a microphone.  ”Oh, hey!  Woah now Stu, you’ve been quiet all this time and now you won’t stop talking!”

I don’t blame him.  Even if you’re headlining a genre-morphing hippie/goth/metalhead freak-a-phone fest, Tennessee is still God’s Country and it’s wise to tread lightly.  Just turn on any radio and you’ll hear it.  ‘Round these parts people are so serious about their religion they expect it to be yours as well.

And while I think the crowd gave Stu a free pass for his little transgression I also think a lot of people walked away from the show disappointed, especially those that only attended this final night of the four.  Though KGLW is known and loved for their eclecticity a lot of fans simply weren’t prepared for such an unaggressive, undistorted evening of acoustic music.  But love it or hate it, going forward this will be the show from the Cavern run that people will talk about, if only for its uniqueness.  

After traipsing back to our campsite along the wooded pathway we hung out with our tent neighbours from Atlanta, Jim and Brian, who were both super-nice guys.  After an hour of nightcaps m’lady and I bid our new friends goodnight and turned in.  When we woke up in the morning our neighbours on both sides were already packed up and gone, and there on the bumper of our rental car sat Brian’s bowl, packed and left behind for their bud.  Like I say, they were nice guys.