King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard brought out Max Weinberg as a surprise guest during their Friday (Aug. 21) show at Queens’ Forest Hills Stadium, with the E Street Band drummer filling in for his son, longtime band collaborator Jay Weinberg.
Guitarist Joey Walker explained the swap to the crowd mid-set. “In continuing with the tradition that we started over the last year or so, where we get our friend Jay Weinberg to come out and play a song with us — it’d be rude not to. But Jay’s busy, he’s down in Nashville, so Jay made a call: ‘Alright, I’m going to call dad.’”
Max Weinberg then joined the band onstage as a second drummer, playing alongside regular drummer Michael Cavanagh on an extended rendition of “Hot Water.”
The elder Weinberg’s cameo continues a running bit between the Australian psych-rock band and Jay Weinberg, the former Slipknot drummer who has guested with King Gizzard periodically since first sitting in during a 2024 Nashville show.
He appeared again just a week earlier at the band’s Field of Vision II festival in Colorado, playing on “Hell” and hosting a solo drum clinic.
The guest spot came during the second of three King Gizzard shows at Forest Hills Stadium, part of a run marking the band’s fourth consecutive year at the venue and its first time playing three nights there. The Aug. 20 and 21 dates were billed as rock shows, while the run closed Saturday (Aug. 22) with an all-electronic rave set.
The band then heads to Brooklyn’s Under the K Bridge Park on Sunday (Aug. 23) for another rave show, before continuing to a run of Australian dates in October, including a stop at Sydney’s Hordern Pavilion.
King Gizzard’s Forest Hills stand comes amid a characteristically prolific stretch for the band, which released its latest album, Alien Metal, its 28th studio release, earlier this year.
