As Tame Impala graduate to not one but two arena shows, we revisit three Vancouver performances at much smaller venues.
When Tame Impala first appeared in the pages of The Snipe, Kevin Parker and company were playing the Commodore Ballroom. Fifteen years later, the Australian psychedelic-pop project is back in Vancouver for two nights at Rogers Arena.
Tame Impala brings the Deadbeat tour to the arena Sept. 5 and 6. Vancouver comes toward the end of the tour’s second North American leg, which began in July and runs into mid-September. The band plays Seattle before heading north for the two Vancouver dates. Opening both nights is Dominic Fike. The Florida singer/songwriter/rapper/actor (Euphoria) broke through with the song “3 Nights” in 2018.
The tour follows 2025’s Deadbeat, Parker’s fifth Tame Impala album and first since The Slow Rush five years earlier. The record pushed further away from the psychedelic rock of Tame Impala’s early years and toward electronic and dance music, drawing in house, trance and rave influences. Pitchfork described it as Parker’s move onto the dancefloor—but wasn’t impressed with what it found there. Reviewer Sam Goldner gave the album a 4.8, arguing that Parker “sounds quite lost” and that the craftsmanship that once distinguished Tame Impala was largely missing.
The reception wasn’t uniformly grim. Deadbeat still placed No. 81 in Pitchfork’s readers’ poll of the year’s 100 best albums, and “End of Summer” won Best Dance/Electronic Recording at the 2026 Grammys.
But if Deadbeat divided listeners, the tour has made a considerably more persuasive case for Parker’s dancefloor turn.
The current arena production puts Tame Impala in the round, surrounded by an elaborate moving lighting rig that has repeatedly been compared to a spaceship or UFO. Lasers, strobes, enormous LED displays and confetti transform the arenas into something between a rock concert, rave and psychedelic installation. A recent Toronto review in Exclaim! called it a “light-filled extravaganza,” describing a lighting ring that changes height and angle above the band “like a Kubrickian spaceship.”
A Washington review similarly described the stage as a simulated UFO platform flooded by lasers and strobes, while an Atlanta review singled out the synchronized lasers and LED walls as almost a performance unto themselves. The show also has a contrasting smaller stage where Parker performs amid lamps, pillows and electronic gear, temporarily shrinking the arena into something resembling a bedroom studio.
Not everybody has been converted. A review of a recent Minneapolis show in the Star Tribune argued that the spectacle had actually overwhelmed the music, asking whether Tame Impala should be playing arenas at all—even as some 18,000 people packed the Target Center.
That arena scale would have been difficult to imagine when The Snipe first photographed Tame Impala at the Commodore Ballroom in 2011.
Tame Impala at the Commodore Ballroom — 2011
On tour for its 2010 debut Innerspeaker, the band was passing through town again shortly after a show at the Biltmore Cabaret. Photos by Robyn Hanson.
Tame Impala at the Commodore Ballroom, Vancouver, April 21 2011. Robyn Hanson photo.
Tame Impala at the Commodore Ballroom, Vancouver. Robyn Hanson photo.
Tame Impala at the Commodore Ballroom — 2013
On the Lonerism tour. Kirk Chantraine photos.
Tame Impala at the Commodore Ballroom, Vancouver, May 27 2013. Kirk Chantraine photo.
Tame Impala at the Commodore Ballroom, Vancouver, May 27 2013. Kirk Chantraine photo.
Tame Impala at Malkin Bowl — 2015
Review and photos from a pre-release show for Tame Impala’s third album, Currents. Our reviewer wrote: “While the songs themselves were satisfying to hear live, the best parts were when the band broke out and jammed away.”
Tame Impala at the Malkin Bowl, Vancouver, May 26 2015. Kirk Chantraine photo.
Tame Impala at the Malkin Bowl, Vancouver, May 26 2015. Kirk Chantraine photo.
