29 June 2024 – The Princess Theatre, Brisbane – words and pictures by Bec Harbour
With their latest album currently in play – STUNG! Pond have been touring Australia showcasing the new material. That brings us to their sold-out show at the Princess Theatre in Brisbane on Saturday night with local band Full Flower Moon Band on support.
Full Flower Moon Band fronted by Kate ‘Babyshakes’ Dillon (one of the most rockin-est front people in the business) arrived on stage and just got into it. Who are Full Flower Moon Band?
Full Flower Moon Band are a rock band from Brisbane that walk the line between traditional rock and something else. There’s a level of sinister danger in their music, with a bit of psych, a bit of heaviness but also the traditional things that make up a great rock act. With their new album in the works and filling their set with their latest singles, ‘Devil’, ‘Illegal Things’ and ‘West Side’. The crowd that got themselves in early were not disappointed and thoroughly enjoyed the set.
Full Flower Moon Band – The Princess Theatre – photos by Bec Harbour
After a brief interlude to reset the stage Pond kicked off their set with ‘Daisy’, followed in quick succession by ‘America’s Cup’ – definitely a crowd favourite. In a night that was filled with crowd interaction and chats with the audience, singer Nick Allbrook had the first of his audience check in’s making sure he greeted the audience who lapped it up and responded in kind. There was praise for their support, Full Flower Moon Band and he asked the audience how great they were to loud cheers.
Third song in, ‘(I’m) Stung’ and Allbrook decided he wanted to make his relationship with the crowd much closer and jumped into the pit and up onto the guardrail where adoring fans reached out and supported him as he reclined into the crowd and shook hands with anyone close enough to reach him. The crowd were mesmerised and absolutely in the palm of his hand only 3 songs in!
Pond – The Princess Theatre – photos by Bec Harbour
The amazing stage presence (and one of the reasons I love seeing them live) is in no small part to Allbrook’s stage presence, channelling moves like Jagger and making use of every inch of the stage and it’s surrounds, writhing, gyrating and moving fluidly through every song, there is never a dull moment. The rest of Pond form a rock-solid platform for Allbrook to take these moves on. Next up is ‘Neon River’ followed by one of my favourite tunes, ‘Sweep Me Off My Feet’ and judging by the sing-along by the crowd, we all were swept off our feet.
‘So Lo’ one of the recent singles released in the lead up to the release of STUNG! was next with ‘Black Lung’, ‘Constant Picnic’ and ‘Human Touch’ following along with Allbrook up and down from the stage to commune with the front couple of rows. ‘Paint Me Silver’ and ‘The Weather’ followed up with somewhere in this run of songs, Allbrook stopping to introduce the band: James, Jamie, Jay ‘GUM’ and Shiny Joe.
We were on the back leg of the set and the energy remained on the high that it began with, no petering out on the home stretch here! ‘Aloneaflameaflower’, ‘Giant Tortoise’ (a song that has been in their set for a while) and ‘Toast’.
Pond – The Princess Theatre – photos by Bec Harbour
Now because I am a short person, I am unsure of whether they actually left the stage after ‘Toast’ because it was the quickest turnaround of “rock band peekaboo” I have ever come across. Allbrook encouraged the crowd to chant “Shiny Joe” and finished up by letting us know that the next song was for their departed friend ‘Cowboy John’ Pond lit up the stage for 2 more songs, ‘Hang a Cross on Me’ and ‘Don’t Look at the Sun or You’ll Go Blind’.
You’ll always leave a Pond gig feeling uplifted, by the band, the crowd and the music – tonight sure was no different.
