Adamson VGt Rocks The Bowl with King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard

Believe it or not, sometimes I go to gigs just to enjoy them, with no intention of writing about them. Such was the case when I made my way to Melbourne’s Sidney Myer Music Bowl on Saturday 30 December 2025 with my 14-year-old son to see hometown heroes King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard. It was the second of two nights for the band at The Bowl; the night before, they had performed an orchestral set. This show was designated a ‘rock’ set. Weeks earlier, I saw them play a modular synth ‘rave’ set for free at Melbourne’s Federation Square. Calling this band ‘versatile’ doesn’t really cover it, and neither does ‘prolific’, with 27 studio albums to their name released since 2012.

With each album covering totally different sonic territory, The Gizz are an anomaly in the best possible way. There’s always a certain consistency in their aesthetic, even though the styles and instrumentation change constantly. They’ve even stepped outside of western musical tuning and released microtonal work. They’re fond of an odd time signature, heartily embrace prog rock, and somehow make it sound like they’re both satirising and honouring whatever genre they’re playing in.

At the rock show, there’s a lot going on. With six members on stage, at any given time, you’re hearing drums, bass, up to three guitars, anywhere between one and five vocals, one or two synths, harmonica, flute, and a few other things I couldn’t identify by sight or sound. The show opened with ‘Field Of Vision’ (from their album Flight b741) which blended straight into ‘Altered Beast I’ (from their album Murder Of The Universe). Total prog rock; intertwined guitar playing in odd time signatures against each other, at least 12 different sections; I have no idea how they remember all of it. Over the night, they played prog, boogie, blues, ‘Dad rock’, metal, and late 80s style thrash.

KGATLW affectionately refer to their fans as ‘The Weirdo Swarm’ and go out of the way to make everyone feel included and safe. It was a beautiful vibe at the show; people in costumes, inflatables being thrown around the mosh pit, weird hats, and a definite celebration of neurodiversity (I’m including my obsessive time signature counting in that). The Bowl was at around 10,000 capacity that night. Around 45 minutes in, totally absorbed by the music, my son, who’s already quite the gig veteran, elbowed me and said “Dad – look! No-one’s got their phones out! I’ve never seen that before!” And he was right – not one person taking pics, making ‘content’ or not being present. They are a special band indeed.

The show sounded absolutely amazing, especially considering how dense their arrangements can be. Multiple vocals, distorted guitars, thundering drums and tight bass were all cooperating in the mix. Nothing was fighting for attention and everything sat beautifully. It is the first time I have honestly been of the opinion that the PA sounded like a studio monitor. I was so in the moment I think it took about an hour before, in between songs, I casually glanced up at the line array covering us, expecting to see a familiar logo, and instead, saw Adamson’s.

Well, that’s it, I thought, I have to write a story about this now. On the following Monday, I contacted Adam Dullens, proprietor of Australian Adamson distributor Audio Logistics, and enquired about what I had been listening to, and who owns it. Turns out, it was (mostly) Adamson’s new VGt line array, and Melbourne production firm Monitor City had taken delivery of it last October.

VGt is a large-format line array loudspeaker and the first member in Adamson’s Vergence Group. A VGt element includes eight transducers, amplification, a MILAN/AES70 networked DSP endpoint and Autolock rigging. The LF can be switched between Omni and Cardioid modes, and the whole array can be optimised across the full broadband frequency range, or down to a minimum one octave width.

I got on the phone to Monitor City’s Director Matt Dufty to find out more about the PA, and what they’d been doing with it since delivery.

“I went to the Vergence launch in Canada in October 2024 to have a listen and see what it was about,” explains Matt. “We already own a significant amount of Adamson PA, and I realised that their new VGS sub was basically an Adamson E119 with a powered module in it. That meant if we bought VGt, we didn’t need to replace our whole stock at once, just top boxes. I heard it, was blown away, and decided we’d get some kit over here.”

Monitor City took delivery of 20 elements of VGt in October 2025. “We literally got it on a Wednesday and put it on a truck on a Friday for a show the next week,” recalls Matt. “VGt uses all the same drive software, Adamson AI, as our existing stock, which is brilliant. I can sit up in the office, draw a PA, and then that file can go downstairs into a drive rack. VGt is like a big Adamson CS line array cabinet, but with five channels, not two. We used our existing looms to plug it all in. It was so easy to integrate.”

Monitor City bought two sets of rigging to split up the PA as necessary. “The rigging is really well done,” observes Matt. “You can have four VGt cabinets on a dolly, and then there’s an underhang frame for S10 or CS10 line array elements that sits under it in the dolly. You just fly it out and then connect the bottom cabinets. We bought the top cabinets because it matches all of our subs and fill cabinets. We didn’t have to go out and buy a whole new ecosystem. It just fits in nicely.”

The first gig Monitor City’s VGt ever went out on was at Sydney Showground’s The Dome, a challenge for most PAs. “Because it is a literal huge wooden dome, it’s a weird room acoustically,” explains Matt. “The gig was a launch for graphic design software company Canva, which was being broadcast. We hung the PA and tested it with a DPA headset on stage. The warmth coming out of the PA was incredible. It’s got a lot of firepower too, with 151dB of peak SPL. We’ve since done a wide range of gigs with it, including dance parties, corporate gigs, and of course King Gizzard, and it just keeps delivering.”

Knowing full well there had been another brand of PA hanging in The Bowl before the King Gizzard shows, I asked Matt how that came to be taken out and VGt put in just for those two nights. “We have a bit of history with the band, and provided Adamson PA for their music festival, Gizz Fest,” outlines Matt. “We decided to pitch for the gigs, and the orchestra package as well. Getting it was a double whammy, as we were doing The Bowl with VGt for the first time and throwing an orchestra into the mix. We were really pleased with the results. It was cranking all the way up to the back of the hill but was nicely contained as well.”

The full PA consisted of left right hangs of VGt, 10 elements per side, with CS10 underhangs, augmented by six E119 cardioid subs flown behind the mains and 12 ground stacked. Side balcony fill was courtesy of four CS10 elements per side, with another four CS10 in a centre hang. The delay hangs on the shell were eight E12 elements per side. Miscellaneous front and other fills included S10P and CS7Ps point source cabinets. The results, which I thoroughly enjoyed, were stunning in their clarity.

“Our system tech, Dan O’Callaghan, came to me and said ‘look, we could probably drop a couple of cabinets from this design’ – no one’s usually coming to tell me that!” chuckles Matt. “The concept of hanging up as much PA as you can to get as much headroom as you can is pretty obvious. But PA technology is getting to the point where, if you’ve got weight restrictions, you can use a few less boxes and still get the coverage and SPL you need.”

There’s a lot of bookings on the cards for Monitor City’s VGt rig. “We’re doing a big corporate party on Cockatoo Island, and then we’ve got the Port Fairy Folk Festival after that,” concludes Matt. “VGt will be covering the main stage of the festival, and there’s six stages of various sized Adamson rigs, so that’s going to be exciting!”

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Main Pic: PHOTO CREDIT: TOM GOLSWORTHY