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While musing over the rising star of Sachin Tendulkar in 1996, Sir Donald Bradman remarked: “I never saw myself play, but I feel as though this fellow is playing much the same as I used to play.” The sight of Tame Impala singer/guitarist Kevin Parker in full flight could quite easily move Eric Clapton to a like observation. There is a wonderful fluidity and mystery about Parker’s guitar work that doesn’t so much imitate the epochal axe-work of Cream -era Clapton as channel it, twisting tones and licks in directions that Cream may not necessarily have covered, but should have if they’d lasted longer than three fully-fledged albums.
The sonic similarity of the Perth power trio – Parker, drummer Jay Watson and bassist Domonic Simper are augmented on stage by the additional guitars of Nick Allbrook – to a certain British group of the 1960s has been well documented, but it is in live performance that crowds have best appreciated it. A near sold-out September/October tour in support of the recent single Sundown Syndrome has gathered pace and system with each successive date. By the time the band shuffled onstage at the Adelaide Unibar (to the strains of You Are The Sunshine Of My Life as if played on Pacman, no less) they had enough momentum up in terms of tightness and confidence to blow the doors off a venue whose low roof and forgettable interior could do little to detract from the beautifully clean sound emanating from the speakers.
Watson’s drums were particularly crisp, cutting through the night to provide an ideally rhythmic background for Parker to wax psychedelic on his guitar. He did so while also demonstrating vocals that are stronger than his often vulnerable studio work would suggest. Many have vaguely offered up John Lennon as a vocal influence, but to my ears there is more evidence of George Harrison circa Within You Without You. Like the mystic Harrison, he has a disembodied, dreamy quality, befitting of a man who painted a diagram of Orion’s Nebula to adorn the cover of the group’s self-titled EP.
In presenting a set list that melded the standards Half Full Glass Of Wine , Desire Be Desire Go and Remember Me with a rich array of new material likely to find its place on their forthcoming debut album, the band had room to stretch out into numerous jams, tantalising an enraptured crowd as much as they entertained. Sundown Syndrome itself cribs a groove from the palate of the Doors, offering a more mellow, near jazzy interlude in amongst the heavier songs. The new material floated largely in this direction, suggesting the album will be more airy than the EP. Nevertheless, the heaviest thing played all night was the new track crunched out immediately before the set closer. Its central riff had heads bopping across the room and offered hope that Parker’s knack for a hook will be around for quite some time.
The band do not do a whole lot on stage in terms of movement, but their gratitude for the packed venue and enthusiastic audience response was clear whenever Parker spoke. His observation about Adelaide’s “hot babes” drew a particularly knowing wave of adulation, and the lack of any of the usual encore conceit also appeared to satisfy. Parker simply announced the band’s last song at the end of a brief round of thank-yous, then launched into Remember Me, a song that irritated many in its 1997 Blue Boy incarnation but works naturally in the hands of Tame Impala. The hype is justified.
