BEING THERE: Tame Impala @ The Mann

IMG_7744

Photo by ALEX PATERSON-JONES

Twenty-three stops into tour for their long-awaited and still-unreleased fourth album, Tame Impala played a way, way sold out Mann Center Friday night. A darkened stage and 14,000 screaming fans marked the entrance of TI mainman Kevin Parker and co. as the intro to “List Of People (To Try And Forget About)” unfurled. Tame Impala’s uber-psychedelic sound was matched with an equally trippy light show while smoke machines pumped out fog all night long. The stage had a frame of lights that would act as a race track of color to surround the band, which they used this to mesmerize the crowd during transitions between songs and long intros. Parker isn’t the type of performer to run around on stage to get you pumped up but when it comes to the sound, everybody in that venue got what they came for. “Why Don’t You Make Up Your Mind” sparked an evolution in the light show and they really brought out the big guns for the rest of the performance. The song “Eventually” came to a close and Kevin thanked Philly as the rest of the band waved and exited the stage. Luckily this was all a charade and Tame Impala came back out for two-song encore of ”The Less I Know The Better” and “New Person, Same Old Mistakes” to properly send off Philadelphia. — ALEX PATERSON-JONES