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LAKE PERRIS, CA-
“…Saturday brought a different feel and more L.A. fashion to the grounds, plus what appeared to be the highest attendance of the weekend. This was likely due to that night’s headliner — psych superstar Tame Impala, celebrating the 10th anniversary of multi-instrumentalist Kevin Parker’s breakthrough album “Lonerism” by playing it from top to bottom at the 10th anniversary of Desert Daze.
Otherworldly hazes of blue, green, and orange lights blanketed the Moon Stage, where Parker stood with his Rickenbacker guitar, finishing what he started after a rogue thunderstorm forced him and the band offstage after only three songs during their Desert Daze slot in 2018. (Funny enough, “Let It Happen” did make it into the short set. For lightning reasons, they could not.)
“And I’ve thought about that like once a week ever since, you know?” Parker said from the stage. “But here we are. We made it. We’re back. We’re doing this. It’s a beautiful night. It’s a beautiful fucking night, and by the looks of things, it’s going to be for the whole night. Nothing can stop us now, right?”
Four years later, there’s still hardly a Tame Impala set that won’t include “Lonerism” classics like “Elephant” and “Feels Like We Only Go Backwards,” but, here, longtime fans were also treated to rarities and firsts. Album opener “Gotta Be Above It” had been out of rotation since 2015, “Music to Walk Home By” hadn’t been heard since the OG “Lonerism” days of 2013, and both “She Just Won’t Believe Me” and the full version of “Sun’s Coming Up” had never been played live.
Even as Parker joked that there was no surprise in what song would come next in the set list, you’d never guess from the elation in response to each track (except perhaps in the readiness of smartphones right before a crowd favorite was about to surface). Every melody was shouted back at the band with joyous release as signs and flags with Parker’s face flew overhead — one depicting him, with his shoulder-length brown hair and beard, as Jesus offering a blessing, except he’s holding a different kind of blessing: a copy of “Lonerism.”
While it’s special to hear those tracks and “Feels Like” never disappoints, we couldn’t help but feel the absence of newer gems from “Currents” and “The Slow Rush” in an encore. Of course, the anniversary set was the name of the game, but a surprise transition from the soft, dreamy journey through “Sun’s Coming Up” into, say, the opening hook of “The Less I Know the Better” would’ve electrified the crowd (and not in the stormy 2018 way)…”
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