Today, Tame Impala gave a dreary Wednesday that Friday feeling through a special performance for the BBC. Playing all the way from their hometown of Perth, Australia, Tame Impala’s performance premiered on BBC Radio 1 earlier this evening (November 11th).
At 7:00pm today, radio 1 alumni Annie Mac had the pleasure of sharing the performance on her show. This marks the latest iteration of lockdown gigs that Tame Impala have blessed the world’s ears with during the pandemic.
Annie Mac teased the special performance earlier on social media, hinting that she would also be speaking closely with Tame Impala during and after the performance. Mac shared a snap of herself and Kevin Parker to Instagram, the post in question gathering over 4000.
Within the lengthy caption, Mac inserted the intro of One More Year, the first track from Tame Impala’s most recent album, The Slow Rush, meditating upon its striking relevancy during today’s climate, where time feels both sped up and stock still.
Mac wrote: “Like so much music, there is a whole new resonance to these lyrics in light of the events of 2020.” This idea certainly appears in the opening lyrics, which read: “Do you remember when we were standing here a year ago/Our minds were racing and time went slow/If there was trouble in the world we didn’t know.”
On October 2nd, Tame Impala played Is It True and Elephant from Perth’s International Stadium, HBF Park. Elephant is from the 2012 released Lonerism, whilst Is It True is taken from Tame’s most recent album, The Slow Rush. It is no coincidence that Tame delivered Is It True from a football stadium, as the track has been selected for the official soundtrack of Fifa 2021.
Tame Impala’s cult track The Less I Know The Better, started to play as Mac’s radio show began. The immensely popular song is taken from Tame’s third studio album, Currents, that came out in 2015.
During the special performance, Tame Impala gave a dazzling performance of Is It True. Kevin Parker, whose voice sounds exactly the same as on record, is the epitome of living live performers. If the listener closed their eyes, it would sound exactly like a fully-fledged Tame gig. If only.
Parker also covered Nelly Furtado’s 2006 smash, Say It Right. The unlikely but awesome pairing was offered for Annie Mac’s world-famous Live Longue show. BBC Radio 1 shared both Is It True and Tame’s Say It Right cover on their official YouTube channel, both of which can be watched in full here.
The Slow Rush is out now.