Tame Impala, fresh off of their stop at Lollapalooza, headlined the Music Hall of Williamsburg on August 7, 2012. The show sold out instantly and fans lined up well before the 8pm doors. By the time the band hit the stage, MHOW was full of fans ready to have their faces melted.
Tame Impala – Apocalypse Dreams
Tame Impala are the kind of band you listen to on an extended roadtrip, stoner jamming which isolate the listener from the real world. Heady and trippy, the band is a throwback to early era Pink Floyd, where restraint was key. The calm vocals of Kevin Parker make every song feel a tad slower, and the music creates a detached world, one with bright colors and warm summer winds against your face.
Read more of the review and photos from the night after the jump.
The band could do a little more, in terms of stage presence, but that’s a minor gripe when the songs, and the band itself, actually deliver on the promise of their recorded work. The band, like any good psychedelic band should, extended each song, adding extended outros and longer bridges in the middle of songs, letting the fans come along for the fun ride.
For Tame Impala, it’s that escapism that has won fans over. With songs like “Solitude is Bliss,” “Lucidity,” “Why Won’t You Make Up Your Mind?” and “Alter Ego,” everything slows down, offering a reprieve from life. Despite Parker’s sickness, the band played plenty of fan favorites as well as giving fans a small preview of Lonerism, their new album coming out in October.
Songs like “Elephant” and “Apocalypse Dreams” show off a little more stomp to their psych jams. The heavier elements of these newer songs felt like a natural progression from Innerspeaker. The band can already bust out a great groove with some fantastic drum work and that shined in the newer tracks. “Elephant” sounds just like that, an animal with plenty of force, stomping along straight ahead with a measured pace.
To make things even more special, Tame Impala played their first ever encore at the Music Hall of Williamsburg. As the band made their exit, fans couldn’t help but feel blissful. Seeing them in a small venue was reward enough but there is also the assumption Tame Impala will be back in support of Lonerism in the fall, bringing a slice of summer with them.
