Omakase Vinyl Returns With Tame Impala’s Seminal Album—Currents

The Details:

On Sunday, February 23, 2025, Equipment Room invites you to an evening of deep listening and conversation as Tame Impala’s groundbreaking 2015 album “Currents” plays in full. Known for its hypnotic synths, fluid grooves, and introspective storytelling, Currents is the album that cemented Tame Impala’s—and the project’s multi-instrumentalist, singer-songwriter Kevin Parker’s—place as one of modern music’s most visionary artists.

Tucked beneath Hotel Magdalena, Equipment Room is Austin’s most exclusive listening bar—a “handsome and elegant homage to the style and tastes of Japan,” as The Austin-American Statesman describes it. Inspired by the vinyl-listening culture of Japanese jazz kissa bars, it offers a space where music takes center stage, played on a custom high-fidelity system designed in partnership with Klipsch, acoustic engineers, and Breakaway Records.

Named one of the “11 Best New Bars in America” by Bon Appétit, Equipment Room is “a place where conversation exists at a respectfully low murmur as a DJ spins more than 1,200 records.”

Tickets: Available here.

The Playlist:

• 6:00 PM – Introductions
• 6:45 PM – “Tame Impala's ‘Currents’ in its entirety”
• 7:30 PM – “Conversations on the album’s sonic brilliance”
• 8:00 PM – Last Call
  

Carefully crafted cocktails and food will be available for purchase.

Kissa Style: The Art of Deep Listening

Most nights, Equipment Room’s DJ curates an eclectic mix, blending everything from John Coltrane to Willie Nelson through the room’s impeccable sound system. But for its “omakase vinyl sessions,” one album plays uninterrupted, accompanied by discussion and thematically paired cocktails.

The Austin-American Statesman explains the unique draw: “Wishing that the DJ stationed in the bar’s corner would stick with one album the whole night? Then you might want to dip into one of Equipment Room’s ‘omakase vinyl sessions,’ where the bar, in collaboration with its partners Breakaway Records, plays an entire album—maybe Joni Mitchell’s ‘Blue’ or A Tribe Called Quest’s ‘Midnight Marauders’—while serving up conversation about the album and themed cocktails.”

For “Currents,” expect a deep dive into its swirling psychedelia, electronic textures, and Parker’s signature falsetto. Here’s three reviews from when the iconic album was first released in 2015:

• Pitchfork: 9.3/10 | “Nearly every song on Currents is a statement of leader Kevin Parker's range and increasing expertise as a producer, arranger, songwriter, and vocalist.”
  

• Entertainment Weekly: A- | “The poster boys for psych-rock revivalism fortify their lava-lamp jams with lashings of sonic shimmer and deep-space synths.”
  

• The Guardian: 5/5 stars | “The album's power and strangeness comes from the way [the lyrics] cut against the lusciousness of the arrangements... and the loveliness of the melodies.”

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