Saw them last night. Sidney Myer Music Bowl, our third largest venue after Rod Laver and Etihad Stadium, which I've been to a ton of times - Arcade Fire, Bon Iver, The National, Kanye. Tame Impala are now at that level of popularity, even higher - the show sold out very quickly. But I kept tabs on the Facebook event page for people selling tickets and managed to nab fifth row tickets front and centre a week or so ago, I was fucking stoked. I've actually always been on the lawn in GA, which is located behind the seats and on a huge slope (it's a concert hall outdoors essentially). So it was 100000x better. Here was my locaysh
Skipped the openers. Got there, got a couple of drinks, took my seat with bae, who looked really fucking hot last night. This was the first time I'd been to a concert with a bae, after years of going to gigs and looking at couples being physically close, usually the bloke standing behind the girl body-to-body. I was a bit nervous, cos she's not as into music as I am, but she does have good taste, loves The National and Sufjan and enjoys Tame Impala. The band came out, did a little intro noodle, then launched into Let it Happen and the gig never really let up from there. I've seen them before but this was better, a bigger feast for the senses, a huge wall of sound, great graphics and a great layout on stage.
What I was surprised by was the relative lack of Currents material - this is a pretty balanced set, which means you get a great representation of Lonerism and Innerspeaker stuff, which I loved, but I was bit surprised. If anything it reminded me how much I love Lonerism. Mind Mischief and Why Won't They Talk To Me followed before It Is Not Meant to Be before The Moment got people dancing. Elephant is a long way from my fav Tame Impala song but it's so much fun, I love that huge stomp and it goes off live.
Kevin then spoke about how this is the biggest gig they've ever done, and how Melbourne's their best city to play in, even more so than Perth, their home city, and so they debuted Yes I'm Changing, which was nice, but I'd have much preferred Past Life or any of the last three tracks off Currents, none of which have appeared on tour so far. It's kinda like when LCD didn't play a lot of This is Happening for a while. But I digress. The disappointment didn't last long because up next was The Less I Know the Better, my second favourite Tame Impala song, and I was thrilled because it sounded terrific, definitely the highlight, and the crowd loved it too. Often your fav song isn't the big crowd fav, but it got about the biggest reaction of the night. Eventually was lovely, Alter Ego showed up, my third fav Tame Imp song, and it ruled. Cos I'm a Man was sensational, it has this lovely romantic, drunken swagger and sway to it, and I was cuddling mah GF so that was real nice. Apocalypse Dreams closed the main set, and god do I fucking love that song a great deal. Encore was Feels Like We Only Go Backwards of course, which would actually be in my bottom handful of songs from Lonerism, but it's a great singalong. Then they closed with Nothing That Has Happened So fAr... which is a fantastic song and a big jam.
It became obvious to me during the show that I've got a very clear and firm Tame Imp Rushmore: Music to Walk Home By / The Less I Know the Better / Alter Ego / Apocalypse Dreams. So I would have LOVED to have gotten #1 but it looks like they haven't played it all tour so it was no chance. A great show, a great band, a great night.
), but was a bit surprised there didn't seem to be anyone doing anything about it except the two security dudes next to the stage, for such a large venue.
