Panorama NYC Saturday: A Sweaty Indie Dance Party

For day two of New York’s Panorama music festival, indie bands brought the dance jams — highlighted by the biggest U.S. show ever by Australia psych-rockers Tame Impala, who headlined the main stage amid a Sabbathy swirl of lysergic lighting effects.

Frontman Kevin Parker — fresh off his collaborations with A-listers Lady Gaga, Mark Ronson, and, most recently, Mick Jagger — kept the groove going and proved himself more than worthy of the Panorama 2017 lineup poster’s largest font. However, he remained humble, taking a between-songs moment to praise Friday’s buzzy headliner.

“Did anyone see Frank Ocean last night? That’s the kind of show that makes me think, ‘Well… at least we have lasers,’” Parker quipped. “If anyone is percent as inspired by our music as I was last night by Frank Ocean’s, I’ll feel I achieved something.” Judging by the field’s enthusiastic hippie dancing, Parker should definitely feel confident that he met his goal.

Earlier in the day on the Pavilion Stage, some other Aussie party-starters, indie-dance duo Jagwar Ma, also proudly repped the Southern Hemisphere. Later in the same tent, Stranger Things soundtrackers S U R V I V E provided late-afternoon chillout vibes from behind their impressively arranged synthesizer banks, and English art-rockers alt-J presented their own dazzling laser display while performing mellow, moody tracks from their aptly titled, Mercury Music Prize-nominated third album, Relaxer.

Scottish merrymakers and international festival favorites Belle and Sebastian, brandishing the second keytar we spotted at Panorama this year, were also absolutely dancetastic, even inviting the first few rows of mostly female revelers to hop onstage for a finale dance party during “The Boy With the Arab Strap.” Said delighted frontman Stuart Murdoch as he surveyed the boisterous onstage scene: “It’s like the Jets and the Sharks — except the Jets and Sharks are all beautiful women!”

And the Saturday night fever continued apace as another beats-happy Australian, Nick Murphy (aka the artist formerly known as trip-hopper Chet Faker), grooved on the main stage. The Sunday night fever will heat up again for Yahoo Music’s final day of the Panorama live stream, featuring Nine Inch Nails and A Tribe Called Quest; you can watch it here, live from Randall’s Island Park, starting Sunday at 2 pm. PT/5 p.m. ET.