I love the intimacy of the small rock club, but there’s something to be said for big arena shows, especially if they include, say, smoke, strobes, and an ungodly amount of lasers and confetti bundled into an event that makes it feel like you are a part of the experience. That’s what I felt as I was standing, taking it all in as Tame Impala brought down the house at CFG Bank Arena on night one of two stops in Charm City on their Deadbeat Tour.

If that wasn’t enough, Tame Impala was joined on the stop by Djo, the stage name for musician and actor, Joe Keery, whose third album, The Crux was recently re-released with basically a whole album’s worth of additional material as The Crux Deluxe.

Rolling up to the CFG Bank Arena Saturday, there were huge lines snaking around the block to get in. Tame Impala had played DC a few times – the last one in 2021 and a couple of nights at The Anthem in 2019 – but as far as I know the band hadn’t played Baltimore before. I spoke to some fans in line who had traveled across country for this show and that excitement was contagious.

Hitting the stage first, Djo started things slowly with the dirge-like “Awake” but that tempo quickly changed with the undeniably dance-y “Change,” while the all too short set ended with the crowd-pleasing hit single, “End of the Beginning.”

Things got started with an older song, “Apocalypse Dream” from Lonerism. With Kevin Parker, guitar in hand, surrounded in the circular stage by beams of light – purple and blue – like he was just beamed down from above.

The stage itself became part of the band – flashing and pulsing like a living piece of art. I hadn’t seen Tame Impala in over 15 years and in that time Parker and company have merged that psychedelic sound with the incredible visuals that match (and in some instances, exceed) the music created on that stage.

Kevin Parker is not a man to sit still for too long. Tame Impala’s recently released fifth full-length album Deadbeat is a move into a more house music / electronic dance direction. And while that might feel like a massive jump from previous records, hearing those songs like “Ethereal Connection” in between older more rock or pop-oriented songs makes sense, and the visuals displayed on stage really made that connection.

As Parker’s voice phased over the layers of ethereal sounds lasers covered the expanse of the arena, bathing the crowd in one wave after another of orange, red, and yellow beams. Handing off his guitar, Kevin Parker strutted the perimeter of the circular stage as the rest of the band played on.

You can definitely see a progression from the psych guitar-bass-drums-keys of earlier work to the decidedly more dance-friendly grooves of “Borderline” and “Loser.”

As the bass and drums thrummed, lights flashed to the beat. Seemingly everyone in the venue was up and dancing along as virtual helicopters of rainbow light circled the roof.

When I first heard Tame Impala I swore it was a lost John Lennon track, and even though as the years have passed that obvious Beatles-meets-Pink Floyd veneer has become less opaque, hearing the pulsing descending fuzzed out bass line of “Elephant” brought back those feelings.

Listen to the “Dracula” (Official Video) by Tame Impala below:

In a hilarious break, one of the cameras that had been following Parker around the stage, broadcasting images on those massive screens hanging over the stage, followed him off the stage and into a restroom and then back out to a second smaller circular stage. That stage, set up almost like a small dorm-like room replete with pillows and lamps, was the backdrop to a couple of Tame Impala’s more electronic beat-friendly songs.

For me, when Kevin Parker made it back to the main stage is when things were really kicked up a notch with the utterly brilliant “Let It Happen” as the a combination of moving lighting rigs, lasers, and loads and loads of confetti rained down on the crowd.

And just when I thought Tame Impala couldn’t keep up that level of spectacle, they brought out songs like “Eventually” and “New Person, Same Old Mistakes” before returning to the stage to encore with the single “Dracula” and “End of Summer.” “Tonight will last forever,” Parker told the crowd as the music played on.

Certainly one of the best shows of the year, Tame Impala continue their Deadbeat Tour and

The setlist included:

Main Stage –
Apocalypse Dreams
Deadbeat Jam
Borderline
Loser
Breathe Deeper
Gossip
Elephant
Afterthought
My Old Ways
Feels Like We Only Go Backwards
No Reply (Instrumental)

B Stage –
Ethereal Connection
Not My World
Main Stage
Let It Happen
Nangs
List of People (To Try and Forget About)
Piece of Heaven
Eventually
New Person, Same Old Mistakes

Encore:
Dracula
The Less I Know the Better
End of Summer

Check out more photos of Tame Impala wowing the crowd at CFG Bank Arena. All photos are copyright David LaMason:

And here are photos of Djo opening the first night at CFG Bank Arena: