Live Review: Pond - The Bakery

With many braving the wait in line, the pouring rain wasn't enough to keep fans from missing Pond's home town show, welcoming them back after US and Canadian tours plus sold out shows across Australia. Local four-piece Mayor Dadi opened, starting slow with building instrumentals falling into rock out moments. What was a mix of more experimental post-rock coupled with psych jams, laptop loops and minimalist vocals led to an impressive opening set.

East coasters The Laurels followed, giving some dark psychedelic riffs in the midst of shoegaze noise. It was the group's signature sound of fleshed out tunes rather than loose jams that showed their experience, plus two vocalists each with their own style giving variety as they finished each song with a lasting drone.

The crowd had amassed inside The Bakery, sheltering from the weather as Pond opened with psych riffage straight from the get go. New track Zanman was a killer opener, as frontman Nick Allbrook was already tangling himself around the mic stand and swinging the mic around on its lead. It was clear that in the first five minutes Pond had managed to rock out more than most bands do in their entire set. And being the last show of the tour, the band were tight as hell, nailing vocal harmonies on When It Explodes and not skipping a beat dropping into Betty Davis... as the crowd went nuts front of stage for Allbrook getting amongst them. Playing the older Mist In My Brainforest to a soft outro led into a perfect opening for the epic highlight of Frond before closing on Eye Pattern Blindness. Pond proved that they really have conquered Perth (if not the whole country), from their early days as a lo-fi bedroom jam collective to a full house at The Bakery revelling in their funk psych. Chatting amongst themselves, they came back for an encore, giving the crowd some singalong material with The Band's The Weight and one last spur of energy with MC5's Kick Out The Jams.