{"id":338173,"date":"2026-07-13T04:54:51","date_gmt":"2026-07-13T04:54:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/338173\/"},"modified":"2026-07-13T04:54:51","modified_gmt":"2026-07-13T04:54:51","slug":"review-in-tampa-debut-tame-impala-helps-19900-fans-feel-human-again-photos-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/338173\/","title":{"rendered":"Review: In Tampa debut, Tame Impala helps 19,900 fans feel human again [PHOTOS]"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"ATame Impala plays Benchmark International Arena in Tampa, Florida on July 9, 2026. Credit: Sandra Dohnert \/ Creative Loafing Tampa Bay<\/p>\n

In a world increasingly influenced by algorithms, it was good to be surrounded by humanity last Thursday night.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Representatives for Benchmark International Arena<\/a> told Creative Loafing Tampa Bay that 19,900 packed into the venue to watch Tame Impala make its sold-out local debut<\/a>. And those people\u2014from parents of infants in Baby Bjorns, to boomers in Chuck Taylors, plus Gen-X-Y-and-Z\u2014were everywhere, from the GA floor admission to standing room only spaces in the concourse. They came draped in their most coveted thrift store finds, with many ditching phones for point-and-shoots as they captured memories that\u2019ll inevitably turn up in a photo dump captioned, \u201clately.\u201d<\/p>\n

Taking the stage at 8:45 p.m. after an opening set by Joe Keery\u2019s American rock band Djo, Australian producer and songwriter Kevin Parker, flanked by five musicians, gave fans plenty of reasons to stay unplugged, too, running through 23 songs<\/a> in just over two hours.<\/p>\n

While a big singalong ensued on \u201cBorderline,\u201d it took the band some time to get the energy up, perhaps because it was wading through an initial sound mix that buried much of the synth (\u201cApocalypse Dreams\u201d), Mort Garson-inspired Moog (\u201cDeadbeat jam\u201d) and even harmony (\u201cLoser\u201d).<\/p>\n

All was right by the time the heavy groove and bedroom piano of \u201cBreathe Deeper\u201d arrived, colored in part by huge Moog sounds. Bass from the electronics really started to shake the arena by the time Parker, 40, found himself on his back performing \u201cGossip\u201d then riding high on live drums from Julien Barbagallo during \u201cElephant\u201d where Black Sabbath riffs from a Rickenbacker (a 330?) blended well with almost Wurlitzer-esque sounds. All of it was illuminated by shape-shifting lighting, lasters, and video rigs that threatened to beam the most stoned in the crowd straight into outer space.<\/p>\n

After deploying \u201cAfterthought\u201d to tease the house music from Tame Impala\u2019s latest album, Deadbeat, Parker took a beat to soak it all in.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt looks beautiful in here guys,\u201d he said. \u201cI know it\u2019s a sports arena but it looks beautiful.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s easy to see why so many fans are drawn to the Aussie who\u2019s earned back-to-back Grammys for \u201cBest Dance\/Electronic Recording.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"Credit: Sandra Dohnert \/ Creative Loafing Tampa Bay<\/p>\n

Parker, scruff and unkempt, possesses an almost effortless slacker-charisma. While he\u2019s almost an anti-frontman, letting the music (and holy shit, the lasers) do the strutting, there is no doubt about his role as mastermind in the Tame Impala universe.<\/p>\n

The maestro let it be known as the band eased out of \u201cFeels Like We Only Go Backwards\u201d into a staged on-camera pee-break and then to a mini-set on a B-stage. Adorned with just living room lamps, along with Roland drum sequencers and Sequential synths, the break offered a glimpse into how Parker\u2019s created music since well before Innerspeaker (\u201cAlter Ego\u201d was the only track from that 2010 breakout to make the setlist).<\/p>\n

As the crew captured eye-level, intimate, video of the all-too-short three-song it was refreshing to see how man and machine were meant to coexist.<\/p>\n

Forces everywhere seem intent on pushing us all to adopt AI, and even whisper to our computers instead of typing into them. But no prints can come from fingers if machines becomes our hands. While wires were all over the place, running in and out of the 360-degree stage (and what looked like a Behringer modular synth), every part of Tame Impala\u2019s Tampa show had fingerprints all over it.<\/p>\n

That was most evident in the short breath that was \u201cNangs,\u201d where blue strobes flickered while the pitch and sound of the synth bent and oscillated\u2014a warbly reminder that the song is an allusion to whippets. To breathe that song in, with a circle of analog equipment at the center, was just as intoxicating, too.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Tame Impala setlist at Benchmark International Arena in Tampa, Fla. on July 9, 2026<\/p>\n

Apocalypse Dreams
[Deadbeat jam]
Borderline
Loser
Breathe Deeper
Gossip
Elephant
Afterthought
My Old Ways
Feels Like We Only Go Backwards
\u2014
No Reply\u00a0
Ethereal Connection
Not My World
\u2014
Let It Happen
Nangs
Alter Ego
Piece of Heaven
Eventually
New Person, Same Old Mistakes
\u2014
Dracula
The Moment
The Less I Know the Better
End of Summer<\/p>\n

\"\"Credit: Sandra Dohnert \/ Creative Loafing Tampa Bay<\/p>\n

\"\"Credit: Sandra Dohnert \/ Creative Loafing Tampa Bay<\/p>\n

\"\"Credit: Sandra Dohnert \/ Creative Loafing Tampa Bay<\/p>\n

\"\"Credit: Sandra Dohnert \/ Creative Loafing Tampa Bay<\/p>\n

\"\"Credit: Sandra Dohnert \/ Creative Loafing Tampa Bay<\/p>\n

\"\"Credit: Sandra Dohnert \/ Creative Loafing Tampa Bay<\/p>\n

\"\"Credit: Sandra Dohnert \/ Creative Loafing Tampa Bay<\/p>\n

\"\"Credit: Sandra Dohnert \/ Creative Loafing Tampa Bay<\/p>\n

\"\"Credit: Sandra Dohnert \/ Creative Loafing Tampa Bay<\/p>\n

\"\"Credit: Sandra Dohnert \/ Creative Loafing Tampa Bay<\/p>\n

\"\"Credit: Sandra Dohnert \/ Creative Loafing Tampa Bay<\/p>\n

\"\"Credit: Sandra Dohnert \/ Creative Loafing Tampa Bay<\/p>\n

\"\"Credit: Sandra Dohnert \/ Creative Loafing Tampa Bay<\/p>\n

\"\"Credit: Sandra Dohnert \/ Creative Loafing Tampa Bay<\/p>\n

\"\"Credit: Sandra Dohnert \/ Creative Loafing Tampa Bay<\/p>\n

\"\"Credit: Sandra Dohnert \/ Creative Loafing Tampa Bay<\/p>\n

\"\"Credit: Sandra Dohnert \/ Creative Loafing Tampa Bay<\/p>\n

\"\"Credit: Sandra Dohnert \/ Creative Loafing Tampa Bay<\/p>\n

\"\"Credit: Sandra Dohnert \/ Creative Loafing Tampa Bay<\/p>\n

\"\"Credit: Sandra Dohnert \/ Creative Loafing Tampa Bay<\/p>\n

\"\"Credit: Sandra Dohnert \/ Creative Loafing Tampa Bay<\/p>\n

\"\"Credit: Sandra Dohnert \/ Creative Loafing Tampa Bay<\/p>\n

\"\"Credit: Sandra Dohnert \/ Creative Loafing Tampa Bay<\/p>\n

\"\"Credit: Sandra Dohnert \/ Creative Loafing Tampa Bay<\/p>\n

\"\"Credit: Sandra Dohnert \/ Creative Loafing Tampa Bay<\/p>\n

\"\"Credit: Sandra Dohnert \/ Creative Loafing Tampa Bay<\/p>\n

\"\"Credit: Sandra Dohnert \/ Creative Loafing Tampa Bay<\/p>\n

\"\"Credit: Sandra Dohnert \/ Creative Loafing Tampa Bay<\/p>\n

\"\"Credit: Sandra Dohnert \/ Creative Loafing Tampa Bay<\/p>\n

\"\"DJO plays Benchmark International Arena in Tampa, Florida Credit: Sandra Dohnert \/ Creative Loafing Tampa Bay<\/p>\n

\"\"Credit: Sandra Dohnert \/ Creative Loafing Tampa Bay<\/p>\n

\"\"Credit: Sandra Dohnert \/ Creative Loafing Tampa Bay<\/p>\n

Pitch in to help make the Tampa Bay Journalism Project a success.<\/a><\/p>\n

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This article appears in July 09 \u2013 15, 2026<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\n\tRelated\n<\/p>\n

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