King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard continued their ongoing U.S. tour on Monday night with a performance at Stanford, CA’s Frost Amphitheater. Among the highlights of the performance was the King Gizzard live debut of “Interior People”, one of the most popular tracks from the band’s June 2021 album, Butterfly 3000.
While the shape-shifting Australian psych-rockers are known to pull songs from across their 26-album (and counting) discography at their live shows, the Butterfly 3000 material has always remained somewhat elusive on King Gizzard setlists. Until Thursday night, only one song from the album, “Shanghai”, had ever been performed live by the band.
That resistance to performing Butterfly 3000 material live is understandable given the strict parameters used in its creation. Each song began with arpeggiated loops composed on a modular synthesizers, a medium with which the band was relatively unfamiliar at the time. Each song was intentionally written in a major key, forcing them toward sunnier sonics. (“We were trying to make upbeat dance music, in our own way, and we’d never gone there before,” Stu Mackenzie said at the time.) Each band member recorded their parts remotely (thanks, COVID) and underwent the “group challenge” of fashioning the pieces into songs via careful refinement rather than relying on overdubs or multiple takes.
The result, Mackenzie said, was “weird, odd, off-kilter polymetric arpeggios in strange time signatures, but with proper grooves you can stomp along to. At heart it’s avant garde, but a six-year-old could enjoy it.”
While Butterfly 3000 songs long seemed relegated to studio-only status in the Gizzverse, they were quick to catch the attention of both fans and fellow artists. “Interior People”, in particular, piqued the interest of New Haven, CT quartet Eggy. Just over a month after the album’s release, Eggy offered up a live cover of “Interior People” during a performance in Westport, CT. The cover has remained in regular rotation for Eggy ever since.
As we recounted in our 2024 feature On Tour With Eggy: Waiting Game, jam heroes Phish also had their sights set on covering “Interior People” but nixed the idea after learning that Eggy was already on the case. Read about Phish’s abandoned plans to cover “Interior People” below, as told by Phish’s Trey Anastasio via Eggy’s Alex Bailey. Check out the full feature here.
“You know that King Gizzard [& The Lizard Wizard] song that you guys play, ‘Interior People?’” Trey asked Alex. In 2022, he explained, Phish learned how to play the song in order to cover it during the band’s year-end run at Madison Square Garden.
Phish had started practicing “Interior People” in July, Trey told Alex, and had gotten it down by mid-December. “He played me a voice memo of it from December 18th, 2022, right before the New Year’s run.” Alex says. “Him and Page [McConnell, Phish’s keyboardist] sitting and playing through the whole thing.”
Then, they found out about Eggy. “[Trey] was like, ‘When we were preparing for it, one of my friends called me and was like, hey, just letting you know, this band Eggy has been playing this song. Alright, well, I gotta check it out. … I checked it out, watched the whole video. After that, I pulled the plug on it.’”
Bailey’s smile widens as he repeats Trey’s words out loud for the first time: “It was hints of being like, ‘F— you guys,’” he estimates, “but in a very, very playful way. … He was like, ‘All of the people at the Garden that would’ve been psyched to hear that, they have you to blame. … When you see the rest of the Eggy guys, tell them that.’”
King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard finally gave “Interior People” a shot themselves toward the end of Thursday’s set in Stanford, CA with Mackenzie on synthesizers, Joey Walker on acoustic guitar and lead vocals, and Cook Craig on both synth and electric guitar. In short, the result was worth the wait.
Watch the King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard live debut of the elusive “Interior People” below. Scroll down to view the full setlist from the Frost Amphitheater performance.
Following a San Francisco show on Wednesday, November 6th, King Gizzard tour will continue on to the Southwest for shows in Las Vegas, NV (11/8), Phoenix, AZ (11/9), and Albuquerque, NM (11/10). Find tickets to upcoming King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard tour dates here.
King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard – “Interior People” (Live Debut) – 11/4/24
Setlist: King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard | Frost Amphitheater | Stanford, CA | 11/4/24
Set: Superbug, Supercell, I’m in Your Mind [1] > I’m Not in Your Mind [1] > Cellophane > I’m in Your Mind Fuzz, Le Risque, Daily Blues -> Cut Throat Boogie [2] -> Trapdoor, The Garden Goblin, Gondii > Interior People [3], Hog Calling Contest [4], Field of Vision > Raw Feel [5], Magma, The Dripping Tap [6]
[1] with Cellophane teases.
[2] with Sad Pilot and Daily Blues teases.
[3] Live debut; Joey Walker on acoustic guitar.
[4] Joey Walker on acoustic guitar.
[5] with Robot Stop and Witchcraft teases.
[6] with “Magma” lyrics and “I’m in Your Mind” teases; Lucas Skinner told the crowd to “vote the orange baby out” after the song.