Tame Impala visit Denver's Mission Ballroom for a cosmic-filled 2 night stand
Picture this; it’s a brisk Monday night in Denver, CO and you just scored yourself an overly difficult to obtain ticket to see one of music’s hottest bands. You’ve got your ear plugs, dancing shoes, and are surrounded by a group of your most loving friends. The anticipation is pulsing throughout your entire body from head to toe because maybe this is your first time seeing them and maybe it’s your seventh, it doesn’t really matter, the adrenaline is pumping. Who’s that band though? That band is Perth, Australia’s own Tame Impala. A side note for the uninitiated, Tame Impala is the solo project of Kevin Parker, who happens to record, produce, and mix all of his own music.
While in between headlining weekends at Austin City Limits, Kevin Parker & company made a pit stop for a 2-night run at Denver’s brand-new and intimate Mission Ballroom, which by the way has quickly risen to be one of the best venues in an already booming music town. The crowd saw a stellar opening set from a very unique act, Altin Gün, who at their base are a fusion of Turkish Folk and psychedelia in its purest form. We saw 45 groove-filled minutes of wild guitar riffs and original basslines from instruments no one has ever seen. The audience was now fully primed for a set they’d remember forever.
Nearly 4 and a half years later off the release of 2015’s Currents and the set/album opener Let It Happen still hits as hard as ever. The eclectic mix of the disco-like repetitiveness, the multiple beat drops, and the metric ton of confetti shooting from a blaster cannon makes for one of the most jaw-dropping and awe-inspiring starts to a show one could ever witness. If you haven’t seen it in person, make it a life priority. Quickly after though, we were treated to a single that premiered earlier in the year on Saturday Night Live, called Borderline. While it’s definitely in the same vein as Currents, it features a set of bongos and a deep synthesizer that drive throughout the entire song. It’s a 100% certified danceable track and the crowd ate up every lyric that was delivered.
Jumping to midway through the set was where things got mighty interesting. Any seasoned Tame fan has probably looked up recent setlists to realize they’re all very similar night after night. Well folks, tonight just happened to not be one of those nights. For the first time since May of 2015, Parker busted Desire Be, Desire Go out, the 2ndtrack off of his debut album, Innerspeaker. The song was complete with the Mind Melt jam from the extended track off of Live Versions and the die-hards in the crowd were in complete awe as to what they had just witnessed.
Straying away from the music for just a moment, Parker over the years has been fairly shy in his stage presence with very little banter in between songs. However, last night Parker was much chattier than normal and dare I say even a tad flirty with the crowd at times. It’s so nice to see the self-proclaimed Aussie introvert break out of that shell and communicate with his fan base who revere him as a rock god, which he definitively is. You have to imagine that constantly getting praised night after night has got to boost your ego and self-confidence. Parker was definitely feeling himself throughout the night by adding in the occasional dance move and playing to the first few rows who would give anything for a piece of him.
Continuing on though, the rest of the night was as magical and spacey as any concert-goer could have ever imagined. The set was filled with Lonerism jams such as Elephant and my personal favorite song of all time to close out the set, Apocalypse Dreams. If you’ve never listened to the live version of Apocalypse Dreams, you’ll quickly be convinced that it’s the pinnacle of music and that every band on earth should strive to create something so earth-shattering, mind-bending, and unfathomably original.
With its conclusion, the main set was finished, that is until the band came out for an encore consisting of Gossip, The Less I Know The Better, and New Person, Same Old Mistakes. Now I’ll preface the ending here with letting you know that words can hardly describe how a Tame Impala set ends. I will let you know though that it’s the most wonderful combination of wall-to-wall laser beams, peaking highs from Parker’s falsetto voice, and confetti blasts so thick in the air you can barely see in front of your face. There are few moments in life that make you realize how good you’ve got it, but if you can experience a show like this from start to finish, you’re doing pretty well for yourself. Parker wrapped it up with sincere thank-you’s to the crowd and we gave him all the love back that we possibly could.
To summarize, the show ended in unimaginable highs. It’s no wonder it has become so difficult to score a ticket to a show when they’re in town, especially in such a small venue compared to the crowds they’ve been playing in front of. Being able to witness their meteoric rise to fame over the past 5 years has been an immense pleasure and we all look forward to what’s in store for the feature (even if we’ve been waiting forever for a new LP to drop). Now if you’ll please excuse me, I need to go treat this post-concert depression.
Article By: Austin Sher
Photos By: Austin Sher
