It must be strange for Tame Impala's Kevin Parker to have written an album about isolation and loneliness and then be required to share his innermost feelings with the entire world. However, he has developed a crafty solution to the exposure conundrum presented after Lonerism became one of 2012's most talked about albums. Taking the stage amid a psychedelic light show of strobes and electric circles, he is drenched in such a blurry dazzle that you could watch him for 90 minutes and have difficulty recognising him outside afterwards.

Lonerism, of course, presents melancholy songs via the unlikely vehicle of euphoric psychedelia, and the album's peculiarly affecting songs are presented in a dreamlike, cloud-nine haze. Bass lines sing like canaries; everything is drenched in echo; banks of guitars crash forward like waves of electricity.

Given the nature of Parker's lyrics, it's surprising just how well the private, intimate songs play out to a large, packed audience. Several inspire singalongs and clapalongs; audience members are carried aloft over the crowd. When the room fills with purple smoke and the light falls on people on the balcony dancing as if some sort of transcendental state, the gig is part acid-house rave, part 60s happening.

Most curious of all is Parker's gradual transformation from bedroom loner to charismatic potential rock star. He leads the clapping and tells the crowd that, "Outside of Mexico, the fans that go craziest are in Manchester!" He fires bubbles from a toy gun and (gulp) kneels to pray before the (double gulp) drum solo at the end of a euphorically received, glam-stomping Elephant.

By the time the long-haired 28-year old Australian is holding his guitar over his head and blowing kisses to the crowd, it seems that Lonerism and populism can co-exist happily after all.

• At Birmingham Institute on 14 July. Box office: 0121-643 0428. Then touring.