Beginning a long run of European Summer tour dates in Berlin last night, Australian rockers Tame Impala breezed into a sweltering sold out Festsaal to tear through a set of continuous psychedelic indie jams from their debut offering, Innerspeaker.
Barefoot and laid-back, the four-piece delivered a tight package of mellow branded tunes with the appropriate attitude to match. The excitable energy from drummer Jay Watson seemed to suffice for the entire outfit, as the others apparently withdrew into themselves for the majority of the set. Their lack of showmanship or movement may however be attributed as a sign of a band still finding their feet amongst their consistently growing popularity, as they gradually loosened up over time.
None of this seemed to affect the Friday night crowd and their enthusiasm for a straight up rock show. From beginning until end, hands were in the air and punters were seen hanging from every inch of the room, eager to get a taste of a band on the rise. Each song was met with fervent reactions, and the band seemed genuine and grateful for the positive response to their debut material.
An unexpected highlight of the show was a cover of Massive Attack’s Angel. Whilst I would normally expect the musical meeting of trip hop and psychedelic indie rock to be a monumental mistake, Tame Impala somehow managed to pull it off without compromising their own sound.
Popular single Desire Be, Desire Go drew the greatest response, although the song seemed to fall flat amongst other obvious gems from the record. Their live sound is solid and brings life to their almost sedate-rock recordings, showing that after a huge stint promoting this album, hopefully the band will relax into their zone and soon provide a show to blow all others out of the water.
