In its 2021 Slow Rush Tour, Tame Impala failed to rise above mediocrity. The music “group” – AKA Kevin Parker – is universally acclaimed for music that is anything but average, paving the way for electronic pop in mainstream music media. Tame Impala artfully draws inspiration for its trademark lustrous sound from icons such as The Flaming Lips, My Bloody Valentine, and even Britney Spears. Despite releasing unique music that set expectations high for an equally elaborate and interesting production, the Slow Rush Tour consisted of an unshowered, flannel-clad man standing and singing in front of a jumbotron.

The show’s mediocrity is particularly disappointing because the concept for the tour was indisputably really cool. Concert goers were supposed to experience a psychedelic trip simulation, and instead, they got a microdose.  Advertisements featured prescription bottles of Tame’s newly coined drug, “Rushium,” indicating a sort of “bad trip” theme for the show. Before the concert began, a doctor appeared on the jumbotron and addressed the audience directly, instructing them to take their Rushium. For a few minutes, she lists the potential side effects of the drug – which include a loss of sense of time, hallucinations, and disorientation – before her voice and image ominously blurred and distorted, devolving into static noise. The dull frequency persisted for several rousing moments before Kevin Parker walked onstage with a shy wave and continued the noise into his first track of the show, “One More Year.” That’s it, that was the grand entrance.

Kevin Parker is truly where this show fell short. He greeted the audience, stood in the middle of the stage for two hours, performed his set, and promptly departed. It’s quite possible to even forget he was there, as he was so obviously overshadowed by the work of his graphic effects team (and kudos to them).

In fact, the visuals were so powerful that it’s quite possible to think that they were the centerpiece of the whole show, with Parker’s singing as mere ambient noise. Kevin Parker isn’t a theatrical man himself. He doesn’t crowd surf through his audience or swing on ropes, but the effects upstaged Parker’s mellowed-out attitude. Colorful, psychedelic-inspired visuals enhanced by fog machines underscored the performance until about halfway through the set. Tame Impala wrapped up “Apocalypse Dreams” and the music ceased, signaling the entry of a strobe-lit UFO onstage. The UFO performed a light show in silence for several minutes until the bass blasted in unison with the light flashes and the audience grew insatiable for whatever GFX would present itself next. “Mutant Gossip” began as the UFO beamed, but the song and its performer were unfortunately just background elements. The show ended with the hypnotic Tame Impala classic, “New Person, Same Old Mistakes,” which issues an eerie warning to listeners about metamorphosis. The ominous message of the song was honestly a tasteful way to bid farewell to the bad trip storyline, but then came a torrential downpour of confetti onto the audience who was already overstimulated enough – no thanks to Parker.