With one foot on the dance floor and the other foot on the sofa, Kevin Parker brought his Tame Impala project to Dublin’s 3Arena, and treated the faithful to a mix of woozy psychedelic workouts and rave-adjacent beats, all wrapped up in a dazzling laser light show that added to the sense of digital disorientation.
This was the final date on the Australian band’s Deadbeat tour, and Parker told the crowd it was “an honour” to end the tour “in the city we love”. “We have been on an adventure,” he said of the tour, but could just as easily have been 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 musical 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, but never quite commits to either side. 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, and 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 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.
