Tame Impala
3Arena, Dublin
★★★☆☆
With one foot on the dance floor and the other on the sofa, Kevin Parker brings his Tame Impala project to 3Arena on Wednesday night, treating the faithful to a mix of woozy psychedelic workouts and rave-adjacent beats, all wrapped up in a dazzling laser light show that adds to the sense of digital disorientation.
This is the final date on the Australian band’s Deadbeat tour; Parker tells the crowd that it’s an honour to end the tour “in the city we love”. “We have been on an adventure,” he says of the tour; he could just as easily be referring to his career, which has taken him from his bedroom in Perth to stadiums and festivals around the world.
Parker writes, records and plays all the instruments on Tame Impala albums, but on the road he’s accompanied by a cohort of long-time colleagues who are perfectly tuned into his musical vision.
Sometimes, though, it’s hard to get a bead on just what Parker is aiming for: he has always walked a meandering line between dreamy laid-back rock and chemically charged house music, never quite committing to either side.
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The result can be a frustrating listen as you wait for a song to go to the next level, only for it to abruptly turn around and retrace its steps back to base.
Still, the evening features some certified Tame Impala classics. An early winner is Loser, one of the standout tracks from the band’s current album, Deadbeat.
The band – Dominic Simper, Jay Watson, Cam Avery, Julien Barbagallo and James Ireland – are armed with an array of synths, but they move deftly over to traditional drums, bass and guitar for Tame Impala’s early indie tunes, including Elephant, which lives up to its name by being a complete stomper, and Sundown Syndrome, the debut single from 2009.
Feels Like We Only Go Backwards is another early high mark; it’s followed by Dracula, the big pop hit from the new album, which is destined to end up on Halloween playlists even though it’s not actually about Bram Stoker’s character. It’s all pulled together by Parker’s lonesome choirboy wail.
When Parker leaves the stage while the band do a techno interlude, the camera follows him first into the bathroom (discreetly going out of focus for a few seconds), then on to a second, smaller stage, which is set up like a comfy bedroom, with keyboards and mixers scattered among the pillows, throws and cushions.
Parker settles back on the bed and builds up the beats for Ethereal Connection and Not My World. Is this a glimpse into the way he makes music at home? If it is, it sounds like a nice, relaxing job.
The second half of the show brings it up a notch with the excellent Let It Happen. It loses its way a bit with the somewhat underwhelming Piece of Heaven before getting back on track with Eventually, New Person, Same Old Mistakes and an encore that features The Less I Know the Better.
