Tame Impala live - Photo via Rolling Stone
Rock City has a long established tradition for raucous performances, feral moshpits and an inescapable odour of piss. But the venue was transformed into what felt more like a 90 minute therapy session on Tuesday night, as the stoner-psychedelic rock of Australia’s Tame Impala took up residency.
From the moment the roadies walked out wearing lab coats, there was a feeling this would be an evening of soul searching and acceptance. Tonight’s counsellor would be Kevin Parker - the 28 year old, long haired frontman, with an ear for a killer hook and a voice like Lennon. He watched on as the near sell-out crowd, made up of mostly adoring teenagers, bellowed every word of hypnotic opener Be Above It. The song’s lyrics go: “and I know that I gotta be above it now/and I know that I can’t let them bring me down”, and its defiant mood sets the tone for the rest of the evening.
The feeling of being unaccepted is a consistent theme which runs throughout almost all of Tame Impala’s songs (their second album is entitled Lonerism) and the lyrics evidently resonate with the young audience, such was the passion with which they were sung back to Parker. Solitude Is Bliss demonstrated the perfect antithesis of the gig; joyous mosh pits swelled to the melancholic nature of a song about feeling alone.
Parker keeps the chat to a minimum, but informs the audience when he has to turn his monitors up in order to hear himself over the crowd. The quintet from Perth performed in front of a large screen, which displayed kaleidoscopic colours and occasional trippy footage of a motorway - sort of like how one would imagine it’d look if you took a load of acid before driving up the A57.
Musically, Tame Impala are an extremely tight and impressive outfit. Parker’s infectious guitar parts are layered over Dominic Simper’s synths, while Jay Watson’s relentless, driving percussions give the songs an added groove for the live environment. The opening riff to Mind Mischief sounds huge, before Parker decides to ditch the verses and diverts off into a dizzying jam instead.
In truth, Rock City’s sound system isn’t nearly enough equipped to showcase the full activity on stage and at times the band sound a little muffled. Saying that though, Elephant and Feels Like We Only Go Backwards, the latter of which is reserved for the encore and is easily the highlight of the night, feel ready-made for the stage and they go down especially well with the appreciative masses.
The night ends on Nothing That Has Happened So Far Has Been Anything We Could Control; a fitting way to conclude an evening of letting go and acceptance in the fact that Tame Impala are comfortably one of the best live acts around.
Tame Impala performed at Rock City on Tuesday 15 July 2014.
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