12,000 people made up of 4000 felt hats, 6000 bucket hats and 2000 braless woman descended upon the Sidney Meyer Music Bowl in Melbourne on Saturday night for Tame Impala’s biggest headline show in Australia ever of all time ever, in the history of yep you got it, ever. That is a true statement, just in case you thought I was just getting carried away.
Tame Impala’s place as the biggest Aussie band of 2015 was cemented with a mesmerising performance at Melbourne’s Sidney Meyer Music Bowl.
Atop of the 12,000 people inside the gated community of the bowl was around 40 less fortunate punters outside the gates casually necking beers in the gardens with their ears on full alert. Those 40 people would have been treated to an audio experience of a lifetime. And to their credit, not a bad effort figuring out that music is best appreciated with ears and not eyes. What went on inside the bowl though would suggest that those who did not get a ticket certainly were missing out.
As I arrive Koi Child are momentarily creating history as the next big thing. The air was laced with weed, and even for someone who doesn’t smoke, it wasn’t at all unpleasant or unwanted. As the intricacies of Let It Happen begin to unfurl upon the starry and red eyed crowd, a surge of human bodies flung themselves into the front barricades and we welcomed what was to be a night inside a musical kaleidoscope.
For the most part of the show the band itself were inanimate, hardly moving, their heads distorted from their position of facing downwards at whatever instrument was in front of them somewhat during the songs that were agreeable to a head bang or two. Mostly they were like puppets, silhouetted by the visual psychedelics going on around them. Parker on the other hand looked like he had taken dance lessons from Thom Yorke, with jarring movement stiff one minute and then loose the next, it was very intermittent and for that reason made it all the more intriguing to witness.
The band opened up to the front page of their musical catalogue from this year’s album Currents before turning back the clock for a few of the fans who have loved them from the start. I say that because it felt like not everyone there was familiar with the Tame Impala of old. I don’t hold it against the crowd though, this new album has churned out new fans from around the globe and that is a wonderful and most deserved thing. Eventually, the song of discovering what one’s future may hold in a broken down relationship, seemed so intertwined with the crowd it was almost as if people knew it like they know the national anthem, to be honest, they probably know more words to Tame Impala.
The place erupted as the guitar crashed its way through the hit song Elephant, people were jumping up and down, and having a right old jig wherever they were. As the show went on, I was removed from the world outside this dome of gleeful faces and coloured lights, as The Less I Know The Better etched its way over the hill and into the distance I quietly took a moment to acknowledge my recent hardships in the past year, it’s not often a band can make you forget all your worries but this night, I was in a complete state of Hakuna Matata (It means no worries).
