Western Australia’s Tame Impala primarily started as a “psychedelic rock project” by Kevin Parker and has been gaining momentum with a substantial amount of praise from critics since their 2010 debut, Innerspeaker. With the immediate success of their debut album, they received four ARIA Music Awards nominations along with a slot as the opening act for MGMT’s American Tour.
They didn’t stop there with the release of 2012’s Lonerism, which lead the band to top polls across countless sources, such as Rolling Stone, NME and Triple J (to name a few). In the same year, the band also won their second “Album of the Year” ARIA award.
Without getting too deep into the bands history, it’s easy to see why they have been selling out show after show (basically their entire US tour) including Turner Hall in Milwaukee, on Sunday March 3rd.
Frontman Kevin Parker (vocals, guitar) was joined on stage by Jay Watson (keys, guitar, backing vocals), Dominic Simper (guitar, synth), Nick Adams (bass) and Julien Barbagallo (drums). Taking the stage around 9:15 they kicked it off with a “Desire Be Desire Go” jam. I especially enjoy bands who switch it up during their live performance, so it was a nice surprise to see drummer Jay Watson on keys, who also played guitar on “Half Full Glass of Wine” and was banging his head throughout the majority of the set.
Speaking of change, the space rock vibes of “Solitude is Bliss” filled the air with a jam towards the end. Often sounding somewhat aimless and out of place, but strangely coming back together to make sense, jams were a reoccurring theme throughout the night and were included on “Endors Toi” and after “Why Can’t You Make Up Your Mind.”
Without the aid of excessive stage props, Tame Impala showed up with a projector screen, the perfect compliment to their unique psychedelic rock sound. “Elephant” brought a heavy psych rock element to the table, while “Endors Toi” and “Why Won’t You Make Up Your Mind” (a personal favorite) showcased the bands spaced out dream pop sound. If everyone in attendance wasn’t already uncontrollably dancing, “Music To Walk Home By,” made sure of it. With the distinct heavy bass intro, “Feels Like We Only Go Backwards” was an immediate crowd pleaser (for good reason).
As mentioned earlier, multi-instrumentalist Jay Watson picked up guitar to close the set with “Half Full Glass of Wine” from 2008’s Tame Impala EP. Although, they didn’t make us wait long before coming back out to play “Nothing That Has Happened So Far Has Been Anything We Can Control” from their latest release Lonerism.
Other than a few “thank yous” and “it’s nice to be here” the humble band didn’t say much, but they didn’t need to. To say the least, from the set to the sound the overall show was astounding and I wouldn’t be surprised if they continued to sell out more shows in larger venues.
Tame Impala – Mind Mischief from Modular People on Vimeo.
Setlist:
Desire Intro
Solitude is Bliss/Jam
Apocalypse Dreams
Be Above It
Endors Toi/Jam
Music To Walk Home To
Elephant
Why Can’t You Make Up Your Mind?
Oscilly
Feels Like We Only Go Backwards
Auto-Prog
Mind Mischief
Alter Ego
It’s Not Meant to Be
Half Full Glass of Wine
Encore:
Nothing That Has Happened So Far Has Been Anything We Can Control
