that live version

In 2014, I went to Record Store Day in Ghent.

I remember passing through Music Mania Records, the record shop on the corner of Lammerstraat. I do not remember exactly what I bought that day, but I remember finding Live Versions by Tame Impala for something like eleven or twelve euros.

I was very happy with it.

It was the first live record they released, on Modular Recordings, recorded a few months earlier at the Riviera Theatre in Chicago, Illinois, in October 2013. It was built mostly from the first two albums, but it did not feel like a clean document of those songs.

It felt rougher than that.

There are imperfections in the voice, in the sound, in the way things move. But that is exactly what makes it stay. The record has this huge wall of synths and guitars, something psychedelic and heavy, but still loose enough to feel alive.

The imperfections are part of the beauty.

Not the opposite of perfection, exactly. More like another kind of perfection. A live one.

The versions are not always identical to the album tracks, and that is probably the point. On “Desire Be Desire Go,” around 2:40, there is this monumental drum break before the chords open up again.

In the live version, the whole thing feels more direct. More monotone in a good way. The guitars are fuzzier, the rhythm is faster, more sustained, and you can feel Kevin Parker trying to push the song into something like a trance.

But the break does not hit me in a smooth way.

It takes me sideways.

There is something surprising in it, almost clumsy for a second, and then suddenly it becomes huge. It does not try to be perfect. It knocks the song off balance just enough for the whole thing to open.

The year after that, I went to Austin Psych Fest with a few friends.

If I remember correctly, Tame Impala were headlining the Friday night. The Saturday was the 13th Floor Elevators, for the fiftieth anniversary of their first album, which felt almost unreal to see on a festival poster.

That night, Tame Impala played “Desire Be Desire Go” in the shape of the Live Versions version.

I still listen to it often.

That break at 2:40 still catches me by surprise. It is a small thing, maybe, but those are the moments I keep looking for. The ones that only need a few seconds to stay in the body.

We followed Tame Impala’s evolution after that, more or less. The rock roots were still there for a while, very present, very psychedelic. Then they started to disappear across the following albums.

Not in a bad way.

The music did not lose quality, and the sense of renewal was still there. But sometimes I miss that earlier version of the band. The heavier one. The one with the rough edges still visible.

Sometimes I would like to fall back into that sound again.

Just for a while.