Tame Impala
The Tivoli, Brisbane
Friday May 14 2010
Tonight, Tame Impala are in control. Ahead of next week's release of their debut album, Innerspeaker, this tour sees them performing before the biggest audiences of their short career so far. It's been fascinating to watch this Perth trio - essentially singer/guitarist Kevin Parker and two friends, and with the input of touring guitarist Nick Allbrook - rise and rise. A few Modular-sanctioned EPs delivered a couple of memorable singles, and they're all aired tonight: 'Half Full Glass Of Wine', with that towering chorus and brilliant Cream-esque turnaround guitar riff; 'Sundown Syndrome', with Parker's verse kazoo-playing and hazy, maxed-out chorus vocals; 'Desire Be Desire Go', with that stupidly good chord progression mimicked by Parker's vocal melody.
Sure, all of the above are good. Great, even. But 'Jeremy's Storm' is the centrepiece of both Innerspeaker and tonight's set. It's a six minute-long instrumental piece that the band recorded while a massive storm approached their recording studio on Australia’s west coast, (at least, according to this month's Rolling Stone). On record, it's stunning; live, it's a life-affirming experience. Parker's clean finger-picked guitar opens the suite, before his bandmates join in; soon, Allbrook begins triggering some apocalyptic guitar effects, while projected visuals show rainbow-tinged flashes of ominous lightning. It's hard not to stare into the eye of this technicolour storm and succumb to the beautiful din. The band rise to a climax, before the enormous sound gradually subsides. I blink, and return to the present. Fuck. 'Jeremy's Storm' is an incredibly moving trek toward a focused prog-rock sound that Parker's band may soon favour over the psychedelic noodlings that characterise their earlier singles. Or perhaps that's just wishful thinking.
Innerspeaker cuts comprise the majority of tonight's hour-long set, wherein the band laud their first visit to The Tivoli ("A far cry from the crack dens of Perth," they joke). We hear 'Alter-Ego' for the first time. It's not particularly compelling, but 'Lucidity' is - its razor-sharp, fuzzed-up riff might be the best that Parker has written so far. Elastic drummer Jay Watson is a joy to watch; since the rest of the band barely move while playing, he's our primary focal point. Parker begins telling us about how the band are about to play 15 minutes of music non-stop, before Watson interrupts him: "Hey Kev, look at the setlist, man." The singer is a song early on his declaration; that 15 minute suite encompasses the 'Magic Carpet Ride'-reminiscent guitars of new single 'Solitude Is Bliss', the snaking melodies of early hit 'Skeleton Key', and a fearsome take on 'Half Full Glass Of Wine'. Their only misstep is to end on 'I Don't Really Mind', the least inspiring Innerspeaker cut aired tonight. Members of support band The Silents join their Perth compatriots on stage, but even Parker seems to note how much the song saps energy from the room. He's motioning to the band to kill the backing track, before they all wave goodbye on a rather flat note, at odds with the bulk of their set. There'll be no encore.
Andrew McMillen