Ok, I have questions on this. When I saw them at Glasto they sounded perfect, I mean VERY perfect. It seemed everyone was playing live, are they not? I just assumed they were a very tight live band since they play the exact same set every night of a tour with no improvisation.
They are a very tight live band. There's enough people up there to cover the main instrument layers and they've played those same songs together for a long time. I don't understand how anyone can assume they're pre-recorded on stage. I'm willing to be proven wrong here though.
My prediction is they are headlining astroworld fest on November 5th so they cancelled the arena show
I could see that happening...but is there a big overlap in Tame fans and Travis Scott fans? Can't imagine a Chad-filled aggro Travis crowd getting down to something from Innerspeaker ha.
Lot of younger kids like Tame Impala now it seems especially ever since he started to do production on some hip hop albums. Plus Travis and Kevin are friends and Travis apparently wants a diverse line up this year since it’s two days.
They still are a pretty tight live band and I think a lot of my experience is colored by preferring the Innerspeaker/Lonerism era over the Currents/The Slow Rush era. Again, around 15x since 2013 in all kinds of places: festivals, clubs, and arenas. The emphasis on the production side of things, musically and visually, has rendered their post-2015 setlists brutally stale and lacking variety. On top of setlist diversity, the jams or micro-jams that made seeing them over and over again rewarding have completely disappeared. I've seen enough shows in the post-Currents era to see the drummer playing what feels like half the beats, lots of the same pre-recorded looped vocals, etc. I'm looking forward to the day they start picking up the Rickenbackers and putting on a live show that's worth seeing a few times in the same run.
Thank you giving a detailed explanation here on your reasoning. If I'd been able to see them that many times over the years, I'd notice the same changes I'm sure. I've only been able to watch livestreams, and it seems like they're just going through the numbers, and like you said, no jams. With the level of production they use (lasers, screens, etc...), they have to stay "on track" (no pun intended) to make sure it all syncs up. I didn't get into them until after Currents was released, so the crazy live production is all I've known. The Innerspeaker livestream was incredible and I hope they do a 10-year Lonerism tour in two years (but it seems like that's not Kevin's thing). I'd pay a lot to hear that whole album live. With all that said, I'm quite excited to see them for the first time ever in September!
Not trying to yuck anyone's yum! They are still a great live band and you are going to have an unreal time at the show.
My friends and I only saw them once at Pitchfork in 2018 and were super disappointed. Granted the field was packed shoulder to shoulder (I didn’t even make it to my friends) but everyone kinda thought the same thing: very much like putting on a CD and letting it play. One of my friends and I had also just seen Bon Iver for the first time at a different festival and they’re really on a whole other level when it comes to a live show.
Can confirm he picked up the Rickenbacker a few times last night in Chicago. I've been a fan since Lonerism but was my first time seeing them live and I THOROUGHLY enjoyed the show. Took a few short videos: Dropbox - Tame Impala - United Center - 9:7:2021 - Simplify your life Buddy made a playlist of the set:
Kinda disappointed how they hyped this Rushium tour as a whole new show/production. It’s the exact same production as their pre-Covid shows with a slightly modified set list.
People beat on Yachty too much imo, he’s a nice guy and he isn’t as bad as people make him out to be.
Love this band but it looks like Kevin is gearing up to do the same thing he did after Currents was released. He toured that record with the same setlist and production for 3yrs. The shows to support Slow Rush look to have had the same exact setlist night after night and he’s reusing the stage production they debuted at Coachella 2019. Just so lazy.
I see this perspective, but I also know that stage production with the ring cost a lot of money to put together, and if I were in that situation, I'd be getting every dollar I could out of it. I just saw this tour back in September. It was amazing. Granted it was my first time seeing Tame, so I don't have any other shows to reference, but I came away highly impressed. I think it's unfair to date it at three years with 2019 because there were only 19 (post-Coachella) U.S. shows in 2019 and 2 in 2020 (debuting new songs after TSR release) right before COVID shut everything down. His original plan was to tour the record Fall of 2020 and all of 2021, then most likely change the production for the next tour in 2022. Production costs for his shows are sky high now due to all the visuals (lasers, moving components, cameras, screen videos), and while I wish there were more setlist changes from time to time, like a lot of bigger artists, there's cues that are time-synced for certain other visual aspects to happen at the same time. Looking at the tour announcement, he's hitting all the stops he didn't make it to last year, meaning it'll still be a new show for them. Remember, the 2019 tour stops may've had the Coachella ring setup, but not the new songs. With all of that said, I'm really hoping there's some sort of tour (even if it's short) for Lonerism's anniversary in 2023.
He hasn't been to Philadelphia since before TSR dropped so I'm happy to see whatever he has in store for us.