Tame Impala kicked off their Deadbeat World Tour at Barclays Center in Brooklyn on Monday marking their first proper show since March 2023.
When Tame Impala released
Deadbeat just over a week ago, I posed the question to readers of my Gold Soundz newsletter: "Is Kevin Parker OK?" Five years after the release of
The Slow Rush, the mastermind behind the "band" finally delivered the much anticipated follow-up and the reactions have been polarizing. First there was a single called "Loser," which interpolated a lyric from the Beck song of the same name, but didn't do much else to draw any excitement. He then shared the name of the album, again
Deadbeat, and used an image of his child's face on the cover. All of these were questionable signs on their own, but paired with the fact that the songs themselves weren't all that exciting, it made things seem bleak. Now that the album has been out in the world (albeit still for a very short amount of time so far), things haven't really changed for the better. The album has been met with lukewarm reviews at best and painful tear downs at worst. Personally, most of the songs are pretty bland to me while the third quarter is nearly unlistenable and I never get the urge to put on any of the singles on their own. The merch for this tour is also questionable. Do that many people really want to walk around wearing a tshirt that says LOSER is giant, plain text or a sweatshirt that reads DEADBEAT in, yet again, the most boring font of all time? Everything about this rollout has made me wonder if Parker is actually trolling his fans and just watching how many people will eat something up just because of the name on the front. In the past week, however, it seems like the reviews have started to get to Parker and his mental state as well. He's posted some things on Instagram suggesting he's taking the, at times, scathing reviews very personal and now I wonder if the joke has flipped back on himself. Some of this is to be expected, in some regard. Any artist putting themselves out there creatively runs the risk of their ideas not being met with the praise and approval they think their work deserves and it's gotta be tough to have this kind of blowback to a record when your past work has made you one of the most critically acclaimed bands of the past two decades. However, the good thing that Kevin Parker does have going for him right now, is that he has an almost-perfect back catalogue of songs to fall back on as he hits the road for the first time in over two years and when I walked into Barclays Center in Brooklyn for the opening night of the tour, I was still really excited to see such a vital artist who has released a lot of my favorite music over the past fifteen years. Set up in the round, the band took to the stage exactly at 9:00 P.M. and immediately dove into "Apocalypse Dreams" from their esteems sophomore record
Lonerism which set quite the tone for the night that would follow. Bouncing back and forth between new jams and old favorites, it was an up and down night that hit the highest of highs and gave improved prospective on newer tunes. The live debut of "Dracula" had the crowd bouncing and singing along in a way that really surprised me, the more R&B-leaning track not something that has connected with me at all, hit like a number by The Weeknd and allowed Kevin Parker to begin to try out his moves as a pop star. Dipping back again to
Lonerism, "Endors toi" was another stellar throwback that shifted the tone back to rock mode before hitting us with another newbie in "Loser." Watching the band oscillate between older material and the new, funkier jams was more polarizing than could've been desired, but the production levels of the show helped to offset any kind of lackluster feeling. As they've proven to do as they've grown in headlining status, Parker's live show continues to evolve and innovate with this new set up no exception. Set up in the middle of the arena, the stage was surrounded by rings of light that moved up and down while twisting around the band and their plethora of gear, dazzling us at every note and shooting lasers across the arena to really take things to the next level. Perhaps the hardest part was watching the band move from a song like "Elephant" which had two different drums kits being played simultaneously, rocking out to some of their best psych moments get matched with these new formulaic songs. After a killer "Feels Like We Only Go Backwards" leveled the crowd, cameras followed Parker backstage and into a bathroom where we proceeded to watch him stand at a urinal before making his way back to a smaller stage at another end of the arena. It was a bizarre moment that again begged the question as to where his head is at for some of these moves and when he sat on a carpet encircled by synths, sequencers, and other gear it felt like yet another strange choice to bring these techno-influenced tracks to life while he laid on the floor with his eyes closed. What could've been epic dance numbers turned out to be the one time of the show when the lights were basically off and just the cameras and a set of lamps lit up Parker's performance. As he made his way back to the main stage, the band hit us with "Let It Happen" and another spark lit up the crowd, reengaging with full force and reminding us of just how fantastic this band can be when they hit their stride. A lot of what has historically made the band such an incredible live act is their commitment to bring a lot of their equipment on the road to replicate the sound as best as possible. Even as he shifts towards his DJ moment. Yet even as he does seem to strive for a Fred again.. aesthetic with the influence of disco-inspired pop from Daft Punk's meticulously crafted
Random Access Memories, it doesn't quite land with the same same excitement. Still, all of the band's classic material sounded as loud and as impressive as ever, confirming that the legacy of these tracks does indeed hold up and being able to see the band encompassed by the crowd really made their status feel cemented in place. It's still unclear to me exactly where Kevin Parker's going with this current iteration of the band, but while that may be an open questions, it's clear that his vision as a liver performer is still something to be in awe of and triumphs the other aspects of this era for the group. Tame Impala's live show has never been something to miss and this tour affirms that that's never been more true.
Set list:
01 "Apocalypse Dreams"
02 "Dracula" (Public live debut)
03 "Endors toi"
04 "Loser" (Public live debut)
05 "Breathe Deeper"
06 "Borderline"
07 "Gossip"
08 "Elephant"
09 "Afterthought" (Live debut)
10 "My Old Ways" (Public live debut)
11 "Feels Like We Only Go Backwards"
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12 "No Reply" (Instrumental snippet)
13 "Ethereal Connection" (Live debut)
14 "Not My World" (Live debut)
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15 "Let It Happen"
16 "Nangs"
17 "Obsolete" (Live debut)
18 "Alter Ego"
19 "Piece of Heaven" (Live debut)
20 "Eventually"
21 "New Person, Same Old Mistakes"
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22 "Neverender" [Justice cover] (First time by Tame Impala)
23 "The Less I Know the Better"
24 "End of Summer"
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