Photo: Justin Edwards

Judging by the number of people who ask me, “Did you see Tame Impala?”, I get the feeling that the feted West Australian psych toddlers played to a crowd slightly smaller than the one currently facing Luke Steele … (my answer was “No”, for the record; a combination of circumstances making early Tivoli attendance difficult). Looking like an oversized schoolboy in baggy trousers and tie, Steele’s Pnau/Empire Of The Sun-inflated profile probably helps the recognition factor amongst what appears to be a predominantly Nova-listening audience – of course, I could just be thinking that because of the Nova wagon illegally parked out front. Strumming an acoustic and struggling with loops that don’t quite trigger when he wants them too, Steele remains one of Australia’s oddest pop star propositions. He’s got the voice and some genuinely inventive songwriting talent, but he also never seems to fit in – the perennial square peg, no matter how much svengali-in-training Nick Littlemore softens the rough edges.

By the time Brooklyn megastars MGMT take the stage, the crowd is ready for something spectacular. Unfortunately, like the cactus cut-outs adorning the stage, what they get is something merely serviceable. No disrespect to the Kirsten Dunst-dating hair bear Andrew VanWyngarden and sunglass-clad buddy Ben Goldwasser and their extremely competent touring band – every song sounds great and is played in a perfectly satisfactory manner … but that’s part of the problem really. It’s not exceptional when expectation suggested it would be. The lead duo’s crowd interaction is minimal and impersonal, the are songs polished to a lengthy-tour sheen with the noodly psych bits a bit on the obvious side, and it’s all about as exciting as a dress rehearsal for a televised awards show.

Another possibly worrying aspect for the casual listener (i.e. – those not yet prepared to follow the band beyond the first single from the next album unless it’s as good as Kids) is the fact that we’re several tunes in before anything hit-worthy is played. Immaculately performed album filler only highlights the notion that Oracular Spectacular is an excellent four song EP with an awful lot of B-sides. That said, killer singles Time To Pretend and Electric Feel are as rapturously received as they well deserve, with Weekend Warriors also proving to be a highlight. The band’s drummer, resplendent in Heavy Metal t-shirt (the Euro-fantasy comic magazine, not the musical style), is definitely the secret weapon of the MGMT live experience, powering all songs with a beefed-up version of the drum machine and sampled beats on the album. Alas, a good drummer can’t create a transcendent show by himself, and the whole performance is perhaps best summed up by the VanWyngarden and Goldwasser’s notorious ‘karaoke’ version of Kids in the encore, which starts out well but trails off aimlessly in a way that suggests tour fatigue or disinterest. Let’s just hope they get a nice long break to record their next album and fill it with songs that cement them as long-term winners rather than a burnt-out, one huge album flash-in the-pan.

TOPHER HEALY

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