Tame Impala's Deadbeat Tour: Kevin Parker's Arena of Uppers and Downers
Kevin Parker stumbled on stage in Brisbane, delivered ego-obliterating lasers and a televised urinal break — but melancholic new tracks clashed with the band's psychedelic uppers.
Programme
- Tame Impala played the Brisbane Entertainment Centre on the Deadbeat tour, reviewed by the Guardian on 10 October 2026.
- Kevin Parker walks off for a mid-show urinal break at every Deadbeat show, filmed by a camera for the audience.
- The band performed as a six-piece with new member James Ireland, previously of Pond.
- The reviewer praised the laser rig as achieving ego-obliterating psychedelic escapism.
- Melancholic newer tracks sat uncomfortably alongside the band's chunky psychedelia and hazy prog-rock.
Kevin Parker walked on stage at the Brisbane Entertainment Centre looking, in the reviewer's words, like "he's just stumbled out of bed" — and then delivered one of the most spectacular lighting and laser productions arena rock has seen.
That tension ran through Tame Impala's Deadbeat tour stop in Brisbane, where melancholic newer material sat uncomfortably alongside the chunky psychedelia and hazy prog-rock that made the Australian band famous.
The show produced a string of firsts, as the Guardian's reviewer noted. The shambolic entrance was one. The lighting rig was another: so spectacular that it "can evoke the ego-obliterating escapism only the best psychedelia can achieve".
And then there was the urinal.
What is Kevin Parker's mid-show toilet break about?
Parker walks off stage for a wee at every Deadbeat show — and the audience watches him do it. A camera follows him right to the urinal, in front of thousands of people.
The reviewer frames the stunt as an open question: is it "a cheeky joke, a manoeuvre to buy time for some production trickery, or a performance to build out his deliberately lackadaisical stage presence"? That ambiguity, the review argues, is part of his appeal.
How does the band sound?
On the musical side, the verdict is emphatic. Parker's live voice is "ethereal and plaintive, soaring even over the most abrasive guitars and synthy ruckus".
The band now performs as a six-piece. James Ireland, of the fellow Perth outfit Pond, has joined the lineup.
Drummer Julien Barbagallo earns particular praise: he "can and will rattle your rib cage".
What's the problem with the set?
The critical fault line lies in the material itself. The newer, melancholic tracks — the "downers" — sit uneasily next to the psychedelic "uppers" of the band's established catalogue.
It is a booking of opposites: a performer who seems determined to deflate arena-scale spectacle, paired with a production rig built to overwhelm. As the Deadbeat tour continues across Australia, that ricochet between withdrawal and excess looks set to remain both the show's signature and its central contradiction.
The Guardian's full review was published on 10 October 2026.
Source: Guardian Music
