Total euphoria! Headliner Tame Impala steals the show at London’s All Points East Festival
Tame Impala took to Victoria Park, August 25th, for an exclusive London show and exceeded all expectations! Australia’s Kevin Parker and 5-piece band performed on the main stage East and thrilled the crowd of fans who screamed the guitar riffs and synths back to him all night. The Tame Impala live experience was out-of-this-world, as psychedelic rock is paired with a mesmerising lightshow including a huge circular lighting rig shooting coloured lasers, almost resembling a UFO.
Personally, All Points East festival felt a lot less chaotic and rowdy than any other festival I have ever attended perhaps due to it being a day festival or because there was a range of ages. Although don’t get me wrong the festival itself had a great vibe, the music was outstanding and, in my experience, very friendly people. The perfect festival for someone that “doesn’t do festivals” with fairground rides, clean functioning toilets and short food and drink queues.
The music was a day of contrast, with a lot of softer sounding artists including Q, Omar Apollo and the standout for me Montell Fish starting the day. Chill RnB vocalist Montell Fish controlled the smallest ‘BMW play next stage’ with fans singing along to his beautiful vocals. This included new album tracks that recently blew up on TikTok, ‘Fall in Love with You’ and ‘Talk 2 Me’ with some fans standing on benches to get the best look. Meanwhile the North arena tent (where I spent most of the day) was full to the brim with ravers listening to various DJ sets including dreamy FKJ – until it was Tame Impala time!
Tame Impala’s electrifying set was 90 minutes of pure bliss! It began with a trippy satirical advertisement video of a pharmacist presenting a new (made-up) drug called ‘Rushium’ before fading into the first song ‘One more year’. The first few songs of the set were all handpicked from popular album ‘Slow Rush,’ and the crowd got dancing immediately. Kevin parker, seeming more charismatic than ever, hyped London’s crowd saying, “I thought this day would never come” followed by asking listeners to get “a little rowdy” to the rocky old fan-favourite ‘Elephant’.
Songs from a mixture of all albums played and by the midway point, the energy in Victoria Park was nothing but exhilarating with psychedelic visuals and multicoloured lasers that could be seen even from the back of the park. When the intro of ‘Let it Happen’ played, fans jumped higher than ever as the show turned multisensory as heaps of coloured confetti was released to create the ultimate live concert experience.
The setlist continued to impress right down to the final part. My personal favourite ‘Eventually’ did not disappoint; the crowd sang every word, note and drum with all hands in the air to catch the lasers from the UFO-like structure. For the last two songs “The less I know the better” and “New person, same old mistakes” I left the front of the crowd to get the full experience from further back. Copying the people around me I begged to get on my friends’ shoulders (sorry Dylan) to make the moment even more special – and special it was.
The only thing I have left to say is that Tame impala is probably the best festival set I have ever witnessed with the perfect balance of music, visuals and vibes, and by the end I really did feel like a brand-new person!