Tame Impala and Merchandise - Vega, København Aug 9th, 2013

Merchandise from Tampa Florida

My friends Santtu and his wife Sala were in town to see Tame Impala and I decided to join them as they were pretty good 2 years ago at Rosklide Festival. The opening band Merchandise said they were from Tampa, Florida. They played some sort of Indie-pop with a few freaky guitar parts and solos every now and then. The singer did not really have a voice that grabbed you in anyway. The guitar player on the left wanted to be like Thruston Moore of Sonic Youth but did not really pull it off. The crowd gave them a nice response but the music is just too mainstream and slick for me.

Tame Impala

          It took perhaps 30mins to get Tame Impala set up and then they were ready. The first half hour of the show was shorter psychedelic pop numbers with lots of layers of synthesizers. The guitar player on the left played more synth than guitar. Then the band went into these longer tracks which is what I remembered from the Roskilde show. The audience was really into it and at times they had some super cool visual projections. This was really important to suck you into the whole thing. The singer mentioned after one of the cooler songs that they had not played that one in a while so perhaps they are changing the set lists around and not just doing the same set every night. My biggest complaint with this band, like Telestar Sound Drone, is that once they get some really cool parts going, they always cut the solo off or the energy off just as they could really take it to the next level. Not once did they spread their wings and fly, which is a real pity. Scared to take a chance, step out of the box… Anyway, a pretty cool psychedelic rock concert with pop vocals, and sensibilities mixed in.  I should say that the sound man did an amazing job.