Live Review: Tame Impala

With Tame Impala's final performance of their current Australian tour came a big announcement: bassist Nick Allbrook would be leaving the band. He would play his last show at Belvoir Amphitheatre, the venue where he played his first show with the band half a decade prior. Allbrook has been by Kevin Parker's side all the way, as the band exploded from Perth to become one of the most important bands of the decade, with last year's Lonerism taking out album of the year awards here and in Europe and cementing their place in some of the biggest festivals across the globe. While writing and recording is all Parker, Allbrook played a crucial role in bringing the Tame sound to hundreds of thousands of fans the world over.

If all the stars and planets had aligned for the night they couldn't have created a more fitting evening to farewell Allbrook. Backstage it played like a pivotal scene in a rockumentary. The band's beloved Fremantle Dockers drew their game with the Sydney Swans, the boys watching on the green room TV, amid fist pumps and cheering until the final siren. The draw served as an apt image for the feeling of the night with reason for celebration but not without some sadness. As the game ended, the boys were each given Dockers jerseys for a quick backstage photo shoot – jerseys which will no doubt be worn to rags – playing comically at being heroes of another kind, flexing biceps and bro-ing down as the true brothers they have become.

While elsewhere in the world Tame Impala are received as musical gods, with stories of fans fainting at the sight of Kevin Parker in the flesh, in their home town the crowds are appreciative and respectful but definitely more subdued. It was to such a crowd that support band Midnight Juggernauts played, as the audience gradually filled the quarry's limestone steppes. Although it was hard to tell if they won over any new fans there were definitely true believers in the audience, ready to make themselves known when singer Vincent Vendetta made mention of the band's upcoming release Uncanny Valley. Drummer Daniel Stricker was given pride of place, front and centre of the stage, and it was easy to see why, with his drumming as the centrepiece for the cosmological journey through the Juggernauts' electro-prog-infused world.

As Tame finally entered the stage, the energy crept up, but it wasn't until half way through the set with the extended jammed-out break down through Elephant, and Lonerism's second single Feels Like We Only Go Backwards that the crowd's intensity matched the band's and people were comfortable enough to make their feelings known. With a constant touring schedule, Parker's incredible songwriting, and each member of the band being prodigiously talented in their own right, there is little chance for anything to go wrong for the band, but this night the songs seemed to soar much higher than the sum of their parts. Allbrook and bandmates Jay Watson, Dom Simper and Julien Barbagallo are each skilled multi-instrumentalists but definitely not just 'session musicians' as their own musical inflections infuse themselves into the translation of Parker's songs live – and during Saturday's show this was appreciated even more keenly with the knowledge this would be the last time these five would make music together like this.

Parker took the opportunity late in the set to give the sincerest of farewells to Allbrook, bowing down to honour his friend as he announced to the surprised crowd that this would be “Nick's last show”. The highlight of the show came in the encore as Parker gave one final and fitting piece of recognition to Allbrook, with the band performing their already virally loved cover of Outkast's Prototype, first recorded for triple j's Like A Version. With Parker promising that they'd never play this song live again, and the once-in-a-lifetime chance to hear Parker and Allbrook's voices together live, it was the tenderest way to end a never to be forgotten musical era. And with the promise of POND and The Growl's Cam Avery to replace Allbrook in coming tours, there's no chance the Tame Impala experience will be diluted one bit.