Tame Impala’s Slow Rush era comes to a close with long-delayed Australian tour
Since its last Australian gig in 2019, what’s changed? ‘Everything,’ said Kevin Parker aka Tame Impala with a laugh, shaking his head at the enormity of the question.
The last time Tame Impala performed in its home country, it was closing the main stage at Splendour in the Grass near Byron Bay in mid-2019, with new music almost ready for the world’s ears.
That one-off gig came amid a busy global touring schedule that saw the Fremantle-born act booked as a headliner at some of the biggest festival stages in pop music, such as Coachella and Glastonbury.
Since that last Australian gig, what’s changed? “Everything,” said Kevin Parker with a laugh, shaking his head at the enormity of the question, not least because he became a father to daughter Peach in January last year.
For starters, the chart-topping fourth album The Slow Rush was issued in February 2020, just before the pandemic subsumed everything. Strangely, those songs’ themes – rooted strongly in nostalgia and the passage of time – took on new and unintended meanings amid global lockdowns.
“A few months into the pandemic, I remember thinking it was bizarre how suited to the sentiment the lyrics were,” Parker told The Australian on Monday. “I thought it was as weird as everyone else did.”
A solo project led by the singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist that expands to a five-piece band in the live setting, Tame Impala later swept the ARIAs in 2020 with five awards including album of the year.
On Tuesday night in Brisbane, Parker and his globetrotting bandmates will finally get the chance to play those songs to homeland fans on a long-delayed album tour.
With more than 80,000 tickets sold across six dates, it will be one of the year’s biggest tours by an Australian act, alongside the likes of Midnight Oil, The Kid Laroi and Rufus Du Sol. “I’ve been fantasising about being in Australia,” he said.
“Touring here is such a nostalgic thing for me, because that was really the start of this music life.
“I have so many memories of being in the airports of Australia; there’s a part of me that’s so happy to be at Brisbane Airport again – hungover, as usual.”
More than a decade removed from the grind of playing pubs and clubs, today the centrepiece of its live production is a light-infused, smoke-belching steel ring weighing six tonnes and resembling a flying saucer.
Originally designed for Tame Impala’s headline set at US festival Coachella in April 2019, Parker says this tour – which concludes with a hometown concert in Perth on October 29 – might mark the last time the ring rises above him and his bandmates.
With recent singles including a track with British pop act Gorillaz and remixing an Elvis Presley song for Baz Luhrmann’s recent Elvis biopic – as well as an unreleased collaboration with 19-year-old Australian hip-hop phenom The Kid Laroi – Parker gave a conspiratorial smirk when asked about his next work.
“I’m always working on new stuff,” he said. “Music is the only thing I know how to do properly, so you can bet on that.”
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