Review: POND Have Painted Jakarta Silver on Their 1st Ever Show!
(11/26) Aussie’s psychedelic act, POND have graced the stage of The Pallas, SCBD on Sunday, 26 November 2017. The band that consist of Nick Allbrook, Jay Watson, Shiny Joe Ryan and Jamie Terry greeted the fans at 10 PM Western Indonesia Time. Approximately one hour late from their initial schedule, since the gate and overall schedule was pushed back an hour or so. Previously, rock band from Indonesia, .Feast, have successfully heated up the stage by bringing out their songs from album “Multiverses”. Their strong visual and energizing music left an impact since the crowd got more excited to see the main act. Finally, Joe Ryan stepped onto the stage to help some of the crews to set up the instruments before finally performing with the rest of his bandmates. “30.000 Megatrons”, “Sweep My Off My Feet”, “Elvis’ Flaming Star” and “Waiting Around For Grace” were sung one after another before the members greeted the audience and uttered their excitement to come to Jakarta. As an active member of Tame Impala, Jay Watson have visited the country for three times for a show while other members said this was their first time performing here.
The Pallas which looks like an underground sect church was turned into a room filled with psychedelic tunes and visual as the band pumped up the crowd more. In total, POND performed fifteen songs in total with most of the songs came from their newest album “The Weather”. As they left the stage after their 14th song “The Weather”, the crowd started to ask for ‘encore’. Without waiting too long, they returned and sang their biggest hit to date “Man It Feels Like Space Again” and sent the audience into a psychedelic frenzy. The fans were pretty much satisfied with their performance and excited with the warm welcome from Allbrook and Ryan who took turn greeting the audience. As the first show from a new promoter Sonic Live Asia, the show went pretty well despite the controversy that arose one day before the event. It was rumored that the venue had been changed into Rossi Musik Fatmawati, a smaller place that contains 200-300 people top. Although later that day the statement was retracted, it sent some people into confusion and disappointment. Hopefully, with this experience and feedback, the promoter get to hold a better and more seamless concert in the future, especially after they hinted at a possible concert from U.S. musician next year.
Photo: Sonic Live Asia