King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard bend minds and spines at Reading 2016

Words are scarce during King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard’s debut at Reading Festival, conversation put to one side in favour of a sprawling set that squeezes mania out of every second of its stripped back half hour duration.

With its lead track ‘Robot Stop’ kicking off proceedings, ‘Nonagon Infinity’ opens the door and never lets it close, each song hopping into the next without a pause for breath. Frontman Stu MacKenzie keeps his communication down to whoops and yelps, and it’s a fittingly feral tactic. The crowd laps it up, in an equally delirious state. A non-stop mash of flesh against flesh, it’s carnage under the Festival Republic stage’s canopy, crowdsurfers surging forward in a constant stream.

Twisting, turning and flexing like Stu’s spine as he flip-flops about the place, it’s a set that’s every bit as fun-filled as it is furious.