Review and Photography by Robert Barrett

Australia seems to be putting most countries to shame when it comes to exporting quality bands. One of the many to come from the thriving psych scene is Pond. Tonight they were in Birmingham, a very long way from home. With them they brought the future Aussie stars Jade Imagine, for a night to remember.

The Crossing was an interesting choice of venue, I felt it lacked a bit of atmosphere compared to some of the other fantastic venues in the city. Not to say the bands weren’t up to scratch. Support Jade Imagine gave a great performance of their off kilter brand of jangled indie.

Pond frontman Nick Allbrook knows how to entertain an audience. With the band belting out the songs behind him, he’s free to own the stage with an Australian Jarvis Cocker swagger, suit and all. Within songs such as ‘Fire in the Water’ he switches from guitar to flute with no hesitation. Pond seems able to combine aspects of all alumni on the scene such as Ty Segall and Tame Impala into one show.

After a weird out of place detour throwing hate Boris Johnson’s way, he’s straight back to crowdsurfing. New album ‘Tasmania’ allows them to change the pace from the mind melting pysch of the early songs, the melodic pop and ballads they seems to be heading towards. It was always going to be the Kevin Parker produces ‘Sweep Me Off My Feet’ and ‘Paint Me Silver’ that got everyone singing along.

The epic glam rock freak out of ‘Man it Feels Like Space Again’ finished off the set. Australia are owning the Psychedelic music scene at the moment, I hope yours like this can inspire British bands to step their game up and expand there horizons. Pond sure have.

Setlist:

Hand Mouth Dancer
Sweep Me Off My Feet
Fire in the Water
Tasmania
Don’t Look In the Sun or You’ll Go Blind
The Boys are Killing Me
Burnt Out Star
Aloneaflameaflower
Paint Me Silver
Zen Automaton
Daisy
The Weather

Encore:
Giant Tortoise
Man it Feels Like Space Again

(The original version of this article was first published on Gigjunkies http://www.gigjunkies.com/band-reviews/pond-jade-imagine-at-the-crossing-birmingham-uk-2nd-november-2019/)