POSTED: Wednesday, November 24, 2010, 7:00 PM
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| photo | Sean Kearney |
| Star Death and White Dwarfs |
And God, was it loud.
Aussie psych four-piece Tame Impala have been buzzing about the music world since the release of their critically acclaimed album InnerSpeaker in May. After an extensive Australian and European tour, the guys from Perth finally made their way to the Church, their first time in Philly. And God, was it loud.
Oklahoma City's Stardeath and White Dwarfs were a good choice to open the show. Clad in an Aztec patterned shirt and big white furry boots, Dennis Coyne (nephew of The Flaming Lips' Wayne Coyne) lead the set with a diverse collection of heavy psych reminiscent of early Sabbath while also moving into 12-string guitar pieces. One of the more interesting parts of the set were the exclusively drum and bass songs that took on a sort of heavy dance groove feel similar to Death From Above 1979. If anyone was going to set up Tame Impala's set, Stardeath were the dudes the call.
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| photo | Sean Kearney |
| Tame Impala |
The most noticeable difference between Tame Impala recorded and Tame Impala live is the volume. When listening to InnerSpeaker, the sound is a subdued and pensive brand of psychedelic rock that rarely feels abrasive. Tame Impala live is loud. Very loud. Still, the noisiness never felt overindulgent or annoying, it only ever felt fitting. Even on more rhythmically catchy songs, such as "Lucidity", the wall of sound never compromised their catchy '60s revival tunes charm.
Like the album, Tame Impala's performance could be described as solid. The only issue is that at times I got the feeling like I knew what to expect: once one loud psych song ended, I knew another would begin shortly after until the end of the show. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, but if we're going to nitpick, I'll nitpick here. Tame Impala's got a lot going for them: A great first full-length to build off of, a huge string of tours over a lot of countries, and a solid live act.
