Look, we all forget to do things. I forgot my keys yesterday and had to sit outside my house until my housemate got home from work. Sometimes you forget to bring your washing in and only remember when it starts to rain. Maybe you forgot to call your mum on her birthday that one time. We all make mistakes.
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But imagine being Kevin Parker right at the moment when he realised he had completely forgotten to give his bandmates in Tame Impala the heads up about headlining fucking Coachella.
COACHELLA.
HE FORGOT.
In an interview with The Sunday Times, Parker talked about how he broke the news to the rest of the band – literally on the day that the lineup was announced, with Tame Impala headlining the second day.
“They would’ve woken up, seen the poster and thought it was a joke,” he said. “If they read this interview, they’ll know I forgot. We’re not much of a celebratory gang.”
Kev said that he shot off a quick message to his bandmates, Cam Avery, Dominic Simper, and Julien Barbagallo, who all live overseas, and touring multi-instrumentalist Jay Watson, who lives in Perth, telling them that the lineup wasn’t a joke, and that yep they were booked to play what’s easily set to be the biggest gig in the band’s 12-year career.
You know how it is, we all forget stuff like the biggest fucking moment of your career to date.
Tame Impala’s headlining set at the absurdly-massive festival that sees over 120,000 punters through the gates on any one day is a landmark moment for Australian music in the US festival scene. The band is the second Aussie act to hold the title of ‘Coachella headliner’, with the only other instance happening in 2015 when AC/DC closed the Friday night stage (and Tame Impala were the next band on the bill).
It’s the same slot that Beyoncé demolished in 2018 with her incredible performance, that coined the name ‘Beychella‘ and became the most-watched set in the festival’s history. I mean, no pressure there whatsoever, hey.
2019 is shaping up to be a pretty big year for the Perth-grown band – they’re also playing at Primavera Sound in Barcelona (casually) and the highly-anticipated fourth album from Tame Impala is expected to drop over the next 12 months, though Kevin’s not using the headlining gigs as a deadline to get the new music out to fans. He’s admitted that he’s truly going full Lady Gaga with this new album and building up anticipation before releasing new music into the world.
