Australia’s Tame Impala choose 2 of the most perfect days this summer for their concerts at Surly Brewing Festival Field. Warm, sunny, dry with a good chance of IPA showers…………. The band Is spending the summer in the US wandering from festival to festival with some shows thrown in. They will be headlining Friday at Lolapalooza Friday.
With no supporting band touring with them, they enlisted the help of 2 local entertainers. DJ Jake Rudh put on his funky hat with Chris Issak’s theme from Shaft and a few other songs.
Velvet Negroni got to perform in front of over 10,000 people (over 2 nights) even before releasing his debut album “Neon Brown” – that will be out in about a month. Jeremy Nutzman is no stranger to the local scene but this is a new project for him. His sound is a spacey feeling hip hop / soul blend.
When covering an outdoor show lights and effects are usually not as good as they are at a dedicated venue. Not in Tame Impala’s case. Playing most of their shows open air this summer, they loaded up on gear and brought no less than 6 confetti cannons. No fewer than 7 different people warned us photographers to stay away from them until after they had fired. And fire they did! The band closed out their 2nd song “Let it happen” with a massive paper blast to the delight of the crowd (and the grumbles of Surly’s custodial staff).
Tame Impala’s layers of sound matched the layers of fog that the stage was clouded in. From further back the light made the set look like a colored cloud pulsating to the music. Frontman Kevin Parker would emerge from the smoke to perform at the edge of the stage only to fade back a few moments later.
Combined with their great sound – Tame Impala has some of my favorite songs – it combined to a great outdoor music experience.
Set List: Led Zeppelin / Let It Happen / Patience / The Moment / Mind Mischief / Nangs / Elephant / Feels Like We Only Go Backwards / Borderline / Yes I’m Changing / Why Won’t You Make Up Your Mind? / Eventually / Apocalypse Dreams
Encore:/ Mutant Gossip / The Less I Know the Better/ New Person, Same Old Mistakes
