I'm still only marginally aware of the connection between this
concert and the Musikexpress magazine, but whatever, they threw a
birthday party and invited three strong acts to perform on one stage.
Calling it a festival is probably a bit ambitious, but whatever.
Event: 50 Jahre
Musikexpress – Das Festival
Artists: Tame Impala /
Blood Orange / Yeasayer
Venue:
Max-Schmeling-Halle
Location: Berlin,
Germany
Date: 13 August 2019
Yeasayer
immediately gave me a Devo
vibe, although it might've just been their focused stage presence and
the bassist's red tracksuit. There was something mechanical, bizarre,
entrancing, absurd, and precise about them as well, and the way they
took R&B and funk grooves and mutated them into something
danceable but unexpected also reminded me of Devo's famous streak of
successful reinterpretations. None of it would have worked if the
songwriting and performance hadn't been solid, though, and I was
quite impressed.
The high points were
the fretless bass, which was fluid, expressive, all over the place,
and yet still always perfectly tight, and the vocals, which were
almost always sung in harmony. All three core members sang, and they
consistently nailed their parts, even when some segments featured
minimal instrumental accompaniment. Before their last song, "Ambling
Alp", they claimed that the lyrics mentioned the namesake of the
venue, Max Schmeling, and I thought they might be joking, but it
really does. That song also featured a heavy synth-like effect on the
bass that rendered it completely unrecognizable, and it even featured
a wild but superb solo! Meanwhile, they had psychedelic and
frequently creepy projections mostly using images of the members'
heads while presumably screaming.
[Yeasayer. I unfortunately didn't get a good picture of the
projections.]
Yeasayer's setlist
(thanks to setlist.fm!):
01. 2080
02. People I Loved
03. 24-Hour Hateful
Live!
04. Fluttering in the
Floodlights
05. O.N.E.
06. Ecstatic Baby
07. Ambling Alp
Devonté
Hynes' Blood Orange
continued the trend of vocal prowess and harmonies, and took the R&B
to another level, but otherwise was quite the opposite of Yeasayer.
His sound was sparse and wispy despite the sizeable backing band
(guitar/keyboards, bass, drums, sax, and two backing vocalists), and
the mood was decidedly chill, casual, and thoroughly non-aggressive.
The music was always danceable but still textured and nuanced enough
for several of the performers to take brief solos. Hynes played a lot
of keyboards but also frequently picked up a guitar and even busted
out some decent lead bits. Most of his video projections were just
people grooving, hanging out, and being stylish, although several
inexplicably featured amateur drag racing footage. I
appreciated the vulnerability and queerness that was otherwise
present.
[Blood Orange.]
Blood Orange's setlist
(thanks to setlist.fm!):
01. Champagne Coast
02. Dark & Handsome
03. Saint
04. Augustine
05. Jewellery
06. It Is What It Is
07. Hope
08. Holy Will
09. Losing You [Solange
cover]
10. You're Not Good
Enough
11. Negro Swan
12. Happiness
13. Today
And then finally came
Tame Impala, obviously the
biggest draw for me. After being blown away by their thoroughly
psychedelic set at Levitation
in 2015, I was a bit let down by their lighter, more
dance-oriented set later
in the same year at Austin City Limits Festival. Currents
(also 2015) hasn't really grown on me in the meantime, and their
only other releases since
then have
been the deliberately pop-oriented singles "Patience" and
"Borderline" earlier this year (okay, and a cover of
"Confide in Me" on a Triple J compilation). The trend here
is clear, and it doesn't really speak to me. But knowing that the
band are supposedly working on a fourth record, and still holding out
hope that they'll move in a more interesting direction, I had to take
the chance.
[Tame Impala.]
Unfortunately,
my hopes were unfounded. Most of the set consisted of Currents
songs, and along with the two new singles, the overwhelming sound was
dance-heavy and poppy. There's absolutely nothing wrong with making
dance-friendly music, but it came at the cost of the complexity of
their arrangements and their free, improvisational jams. There was
still a taste of psychedelia, even in the pop, but the guitar jam
bliss was restricted. Other than "Sestri Levante", which is
at
least six years
old and
mostly a fixed part of "Mind Mischief" at this point, the
only other real jam or improvisation was at the end of "Apocalypse
Dreams". That was wisely chosen as a set closer, and it was
probably the highlight of the night, but it was the only moment like
that. (By comparison, at that 2015 Levitation set, at least half the
songs had improvisational sections or extended instrumental
surprises.)
It's
not like their newer work is bad, though, and they thankfully skipped
"'Cause I'm a Man", but I felt like the band were playing
something static and pre-programmed, even though it appeared to be
almost entirely live. There was a rigidity to it, like they no longer
had the flexibility to throw
in surprises. Again, a few songs like "Elephant" had brief
moments of a diversion from the recorded version, but they were the
same tricks as four years ago, and infrequent and brief enough to be
easily
overlooked.
The presence of two drumsets and a separate percussion rig with
congas led
me to hope there might be some rhythm section workouts, but oddly the
same drummer just switched from one set to the other for no apparent
reason, and I only saw a guest percussionist at the other rig for one
song ("Patience" if I recall correctly).
The
worst crime was that the low end was overwhelmingly over-biased.
I never thought I'd complain about the bass being too loud, but if
this is what Kevin Parker meant when he's talked about trying to get
his music played in clubs, then count me out. All texture and
subtlety was lost in favor of earth-shaking low end vibrations. This
was particularly apparent on the pre-recorded tapes played as the
band walked out at the start and again for the encore. In both cases,
the recordings were deafeningly and headache-inducingly loud in the
low end.
On
one hand, I appreciated that the band brought out "Led
Zeppelin", a b-side from Lonerism
(2012), but
on the other, it was the only curveball from their back catalog in
the whole set. Otherwise, all five other pre-Currents
tracks were also played at both shows I saw in 2015. What happened to
the rest of their songs?
If
there was one particularly fun element, it was probably that for once
I was down in the middle of the pit, and the laser light show was a
delight from that perspective. Mixed with the heavy smoke machines,
it made for an oil-on-water type of effect above our heads. At three
points in the show, they released confetti cannons upon us, and
combined with the lights, it made for some cool visual effects. I'll
ignore the wastefulness and the cost of cleanup for the present, and
I'm well aware that none of these tricks are new or unique to Tame
Impala, but it was my first time experiencing them from such a
central location, and that was admittedly enjoyable.
[The smoke and light effects.]
I'm
still curious to hear where Tame Impala goes next, and I'm not sure
I'll be so quick to jump on concert tickets next time around, but
we'll see what happens!
Tame Impala's setlist
(thanks for setlist.fm
for the taped track names):
01. List of People (To Try and Forget About) [Tape]
01. List of People (To Try and Forget About) [Tape]
02. Let It Happen
03. Patience
04. Led Zeppelin
05. The Moment
06. Mind Mischief →
Sestri Levante
07. Nangs
08. Elephant
09. Feels Like We Only
Go Backwards
10. Borderline
11. Love/Paranoia
12. Yes I'm Changing
13. Why Won't You Make
Up Your Mind?
14. Eventually
15. Apocalypse Dreams
Encore:
16. Mutant Gossip
[Tape]
17. The Less I Know the
Better
18. New Person, Same
Old Mistakes
Scores:
Yeasayer:
A-
Blood
Orange: B
Tame
Impala: B-
P.S.
This show was originally scheduled to take place in Parkbühne
Wuhlheide, a large open-air amphitheater in the former East side.
I've never been and was looking forward to it, but it was moved due
to the demands of Tame Impala's light show. Oh well. Hard to complain
about a venue that's walking distance from my apartment, though.
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