Australian psychedelic outfit Pond is no stranger to the stage, but as their music has morphed and shifted over the years so too has their presence as a live band. Guitarist and lead vocalist Nick Allbrook once seemed to hide his weirdness inside the band, but with each successive tour has grown into one of the genre’s wildest and most fascinating frontmen. Finally returning to America for their first post-Covid tour and armed with a strong batch of new tunes off their latest album, last year’s fantastic 9, the new power of the band was on full display even as Allbrook pushed through vocal difficulties to deliver a captivating sold-out show at New York’s Webster Hall last week on November 29th.
The quintet opened the night with a rendition of 9’s “Rambo”, dialing back the studio version’s driving percussion and emphasizing the bass and keys, which came together in a bouncing funk groove before being washed out by layers of synths as the song progressed. Another pair of cuts from the latest album, “America’s Cup” and “Human Touch” upped the energy considerably. Allbrook shook his hips and swung his microphone through the former, much to the excitement of the audience, and his vocals on the latter reached an impressively shredded wail that added to the tune’s frantic edge. Come to find out that wasn’t entirely by design. “I obviously have got a fucked voice tonight,” the frontman noted after the song, “so you can sing as much as you possibly can, if you know any words just sing ‘em.” His bandmates and the audience had his back, offering Allbrook encouragement while making good on his request as the ensemble pressed forward into a stellar version of “Sweep Me Off My Feet”.
From there they bounced across their catalog, largely focusing on their more recent material. Multi-instrumentalist Jay Watson lent some standout bass work to “Tasmania”, and an absolutely killer performance of “Waiting Around For Grace”, which had Allbrook spinning around with his guitar as it towered towards its madcap conclusion, reinforced the 2015 song’s status as one of the best psych-pop jams of the last decade. The space odyssey of “Burnt Out Star” proved to be the trippy centerpiece of the night. At various points, Allbrook busted out both a flute and a light-up children’s megaphone toy (not at the same time), made his way into the pit to sing and dance directly into the crowd, and let out a ferocious, wall-shaking scream that set the crowd alight. His electric energy made it impossible to take your eyes off him, though the rest of the band was turning in some damn impressive work behind him.
The audience got in on the fun during the immensely catchy “Paint Me Silver”; its opening melody set off a sea of grooving hips as most of the room joined in to sing along by the first chorus, and Allbrook and “Shiny” Joe Ryan twin guitar lines on “The Weather” boiled up into psychedelic oblivion over James Ireland’s cascading drum fills. “Take Me Avalon”, a highlight off 9 which Ryan introduced as one of his favorites to play, hit even harder live than on record thanks to the mix of swooning “Kashmir”-esque synth-strings from keyboardist Jamie Terry, Watson’s plucky bass breakdown, and Ryan’s thrilling guitar work – all delivered while Allbrook strutted the lip of the stage and threw his voice out to the rafters.
Nearing the end of their set, the group dug back to 2013’s Hobo Rocket for the fan-favorite “Giant Tortoise,” whose powerhouse signature riff had more than a few fans headbanging along as Allbrook wrung the notes out of his guitar, harkening back to a heavier psychedelic rock style the band has grown more and more distant from over the last decade. “Alright! Last song. We love you” Allbrook announced, his voice now far more notably rasped, as the band launched into 9 closer “Toast”, carried by Ryan’s sticky wah-wah guitar melody and the complex keys and bass interplay between Terry and Watson while Allbrook gave dramatic flourishes to his guitar strums.
Returning to the stage for their encore Watson introduced Joe Ryan as “the second most famous man from Tipperary” (a nod to the guitarist’s Irish hometown) before Ryan took the lead. “I’m gonna sing a fuckin’ song now” he announced before leading the band through the Rolling Stones-Esque slow jam “Medicine Hat” under the spinning light of the disco ball. They unleashed one final psychedelic dance party as they locked into an impeccable groove on long-time live staple “Don’t Look At the Sun or You’ll Go Blind”, a fairly simple song that still packs quite the wallop every time they play it. Allbrook wriggled and writhed about the stage like a madman, throwing yelps and screams into the microphone in between burning guitar lines as both the lights and music pulsated ever more intensely behind him until they brought it to a mighty close.
