Live Report: Technical brilliance from Tame Impala as they draw curtains on European tour

There isn't a point during the two-hour show where there aren't at least a few hundred phones recording the on-stage antics of Tame Impala. As I scroll through TikTok after the gig to better gauge the crowd's reaction, every angle of every song I could possibly want is available.

You can’t blame those in attendance for preserving what has been a scintillating show of psychedelic, high-octane music, and a dazzling maze of lights and colours. With the help of the most impressive lasers I have ever seen, the Australian singer and multi-instrumentalist brings the house down with a meticulously record-accurate performance.

It marks Parker's first show in Ireland since he did the closing shift on Saturday at Electric Picnic’s main stage in 2022, with a similar trademark mashup of electric alternative-rock and psychedelic visuals.

His concert in Dublin may just top his Stradbally outing. The 3Arena is purpose-built for a performance of this nature: the venue traps the resonance and optics of the show, rather than letting them escape into the sky.

@kamaa_444 #tameimpala #dublin ♬ Nangs - Tame Impala

The performance is a world-class execution of production and immersion. The attention to detail that goes into the sound and visual engineering add to an experience that would already be satisfactory with some of the hits that Tame Impala have at their disposal.

The masterful melodies and dream-like arrangement of ‘Feels Like We Only Go Backwards’, make the track seem like a synthed-up, futuristic addition to the Beatles’ Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, while the catchy, now-ubiquitous guitar riff of ‘The Less I Know The Better’ would have fans up off their seats without any further spectacle.

Parker opens the set with the steady, bass-driven dance anthem, ‘Apocalypse Dreams’ to get the show going, as the audience sway with the music. Everything about the show appears perfectly planned. The bass definitely feels turned up on this one when compared to the recording and on the upper tier, I feel it rip through my body up from the floor.

The songs from his new album, Deadbeat, flow effortlessly with the rest of his catalogue. Albeit less melodical and more akin to rave music, the repetitive riffs, catchy choruses and digital disorientation are present throughout. Breathtaking visuals aside, the continuity of the music presents this a state of the art production of all aspects.

The Australian one-man music project isn't one for on-stage theatrics. Even if his music has the presence to sustain the flamboyance and stage-command of a Bowie or Jagger, Parker lets his music (and strobe lights) do the crowd work.

@deejaykay7 #tameimpala #manchester ♬ eventually slowed - xxtristanxo

It works perfectly fine, as attendees groove and jive to the high-octane, upbeat raptures of two back-to-back heavy hitters, the aforementioned ‘Feels Like We Only Go Backwards’ and his latest hit ‘Dracula’. The latter is perhaps the best example of the direction of his latest record -  the outer space feel of electronic dance music while still retaining elements of rock and pop.

Then, Parker leaves the stage and takes the opportunity to use the toilet and fix his hair as the cameras follow him backstage. Like the other shows on the Deadbeat tour, he switches to a subdued stage made to resemble his childhood bedroom, at the back of the arena and plays some scaled-down tracks. The arrangement is a nod to where he recorded Lonerism (2012), and significant portions of Innerspeaker (2010) along with his early EP using a  BR-1600 16-track recorder to create his signature psychedelic pop sound alone.

‘Ethereal Connection’, a high-speed drum and bass tune void of any significant melody, precedes ‘Nangs’, a dreamy combination of John Lennon-esque vocals and hazy synthesisers. Both tracks, near complete opposites, provide a pleasing counterbalance as well as a plateaus to what has been up until now a steady increase of intensity.

Some reviews of his tour report a relatively poor reaction from the audience for this segment. As far as I can see, Tame Impala have not lost the crowd whatsoever during this interlude. While fans flood to the back of the arena towards the smaller stage I notice an opportune few who do the opposite and such, claim a front and centre position for the closing songs.

"It's been a fucking journey and it ends here tonight in Dublin," Parker says as he acknowledges the crowd, signing a DVD of Family Guy and having a brief exchange with a gentleman dressed as a banana as he tees up the closing segment.

The crescendo of the performance arrives with another track from Currents, ‘New Person Same Old Mistakes’. If the visceral bass drop leading into the chorus wasn’t stimulating enough, the strobe lights and lasers have now been accompanied with a shower of multi-coloured confetti to close out a scintillating performance.

Everything about this production is top class, from the sci-fi, spaceship stage that protrudes out into the auditorium shrinking the room, to the labyrinth of lasers and strobe lights and of course - the hypnotic music. No detail is overlooked and it makes for an immersive, otherworldly, and ethereal experience.

@broskiunderwater pure dopamine rush #tameimpala #tameimpalaconcert #deadbeat #deadbeattour #dublin ♬ Nangs - Tame Impala