Good Shows, Great Shows, and the Deadbeat Tour

There are good tours, there are great tours, and then there are the tours that make you wonder how anyone is supposed to go back to a normal concert afterward.

There is little dispute among diehard Tame Impala fans that Australian musician Kevin Parker knows how to put on a show. Tame Impala concerts are the definition of an immersive experience, and for the Deadbeat Tour, Parker took that concept even further, conceiving a custom “in the round” 360-degree stage. Combined with Tame Impala’s signature light shows and confetti drops, the result is the kind of spectacle that makes a standard concert feel almost quaint.

As if that weren’t enough to guarantee ticket sales, Parker doubled down, bringing on Djo — the music project of singer-songwriter Joe Keery — and Dominic Fike for respective legs of the tour. For indie fans, it was shaping up to be the ultimate summer concert experience.

And then it got even better.

To meet demand, Djo added five select dates at venues sprinkled throughout the Deadbeat East Coast leg, with support from Parker’s own friends and former bandmates, Australian psychedelic rock band Pond.

The result was a summer tour that indie fans went absolutely nuts over. Venues sold out almost immediately, with second dates added at several Djo/Tame Impala stops. Keery played the largest headlining stage of his career at Forest Hills, selling out the 13,000-capacity stadium and bringing his former band, Post Animal, onstage for a special rendition of fan favorite “Flash Mountain.”

It was the kind of tour that gave you FOMO and post-concert depression in equal measure.

Audiences stayed on their feet for entire sets. Fans sang entire tracks back to the artists, word for word. And, perhaps most importantly, the artists themselves looked like they were having the time of their lives.

The friendship between the three acts was palpable. At times, it was downright cheeky. Parker donned a Stranger Things tee — a nod to the show where Keery spent five seasons playing Steve Harrington — and even assumed the role of guitar tech at the Pond/Djo show at Allianz Amphitheater in Richmond, Virginia. Keery, meanwhile, geared up with a leaf blower to clear confetti during Parker’s Tame Impala sets.

Behind-the-scenes photos courtesy of photographer Cloudyy reveal an even more hilarious side of the tour, capturing the camaraderie that made the whole thing feel less like a collection of major artists sharing a bill and more like a group of friends taking one very elaborate summer road trip.

And, as a millennial myself, that was perhaps my favorite part.

The whole thing felt like a throwback to the early 2000s — the era of tours built around good performances, bands genuinely collaborating with one another, and venues where the music felt accessible rather than overly polished or performative. There was a sense that you weren’t simply watching artists perform at you. You were there with them.

Now, Tame Impala is kicking off the second leg of its North American tour with Dominic Fike as the supporting act. In seven days, we’ll get to see whether the tour takes on an entirely different energy with the introduction of Fike and the absence of Djo’s more intimate, sparsely scheduled performances.

Either way, this indie girl is already hoping we get a repeat of this lineup sooner rather than later.

Because after a summer like this one, going back to a normal concert is going to be a little difficult.

Check out the full gallery from both shows in our portfolio!