Tame Impala returned to Los Angeles on November 2 for the first time since the pandemic began, performing day one of their two consecutive sold-out shows at the Hollywood Bowl. As the lights dimmed, signifying the beginning of the set, the big screens rolled an informational video from a representative of AionWell, the fictional company that created the band’s new trippy mock pharmaceutical drug, “Rushium.” The drug is “an experimental new time therapy treatment in liquid and pill form,” she said. “Be advised that Rushium’s effects range from a minor expansion to large time collapses staged within memory and the effective present.” As the demonstration continued, her face and speech became slowed and blurred on screen, as if the crowd was already feeling the effects. As part of their “Phase I Clinical Trial” gimmick, people could buy packets of the “drug” (a sugar pill) at the merch tents for two dollars.
The packed set kicked off with “One More Year” and “Borderline,” the first two tracks from their most recent album, The Slow Rush. The album was released in February of 2020, just one month before the world went on COVID lockdown, making for a quickly postponed Slow Rush tour.
As much as seeing Tame Impala live is a concert, it’s also a light show. “Elephant” and “Apocalypse Dreams” were the obvious standouts and crowd-pleasers of the night, as far as theatrics go. Their acid-soaked rock anthem “Elephant” brought the show to peak energy with its heavy, introductory one-note strum. The song paused several times to build suspense for the wildest series of beat drops throughout, and corresponding laser prisms flew overhead of the crowd.
For “Apocalypse Dreams,” the band created a false ending to the song. The screen went black as the music ceased, and fans cheered and clapped. But veterans of their shows knew what was coming; the infamous two-minute-long added outro to the song with an explosion of colors and lasers that feel like the grand finale of a firework show. A giant suspended ring of lights lowered and dumped an incredible amount of fog on stage.
“This is one of my favorite cities in the world; I’m so happy to be here!” said frontman Kevin Parker during the break in the middle of “Let it Happen.” “I hope you’re enjoying yourselves. I personally am fucking enjoying myself.” Another fan favorite, the song was accompanied by a spray of the confetti cannon.
The band touched on older, yet no less popular, material from their 2012 album Lonerism. “Gossip” made its Slow Rush Tour debut, and Parker said, “Here comes a sing-a-long,” prepping the crowd for “Feels Like We Only Go Backwards.”
As the first notes of “Keep on Lying” rang out of the speakers, Parker said the song paid homage to and was inspired by, the Doors playing live at the Hollywood Bowl in the 1960s. “Was anyone there that night?” he joked to the crowd, the majority of whom were probably born in the ’90s. The outro of the song morphed into an extended jam session, and Parker shredded a lengthy guitar solo.
During the lull before the big beat drop on “New Person, Same Old Mistakes,” Parker said, “This is probably my favorite part of the set,” and confetti cannons blasted into the crowd for several seconds as the lasers crossed in haphazard patterns across the sky.
At the end of the song, when the screens went black and the band walked off stage, thousands of people whipped out their phone flashlights and lighters, chanting for their return. When the band walked back out, they looked pleasantly shocked, and Parker said “Wow! Yeah, now I can see you!”
The encore of the show rang the crowd back in for, arguably, the band’s most successful song to date, “The Less I Know The Better.” There’s a reason the song soared across top 100 lists and went platinum twice in the United States alone; it’s got everything it should. The combination of bitter-sweet lyrics, funky bass lines, catchy lyrics and dance-ability had the crowd reaching their hands to the sky and jumping as they sang along.
“You guys looking fucking beautiful, you know that?” said Parker. “I spent so many nights on that side of the stage saying ‘this is beautiful,’ and I always wanted to be on this side. Let me tell you, it’s beautiful here, too.”
The song that closed out the night was “One More Hour,” and as the masses of people left the Bowl, they probably wished they had just that with Tame Impala.
Set List:
Encore:
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