Pond
December 4, 2022
Lee’s Palace, Toronto, ON
Canadian Beats Passport
Australian rock band Pond is currently on their first post-pandemic North American tour. On Sunday, December 4th hit the stage in Toronto at the historic music venue known as Lee’s Palace.
Many people know Pond as being a kind of a ‘spin-off’ band of Tame Impala as the group contains a few of the same band members(past and present) and have featured production from Tame Impala frontman Kevin Parker. The group has evolved and created its own footprint over the years, releasing nine studio albums over the past ten-plus years, the most critically acclaimed being Tasmania and their most recent album 9 from 2021. Their 2017 release, The Weather, is my personal favorite, and I believe this project was seen as a turning point for the band, with iconic songs like “3000 Megatons” and “The Weather” helped propel the band into the global music market.
This wasn’t Pond’s first time playing in Toronto, as they played here in 2018 the last time, but it’s definitely been a few years since they have been to this town. Pond hit the stage and would perform a mixture of new and old songs. Some notable tracks were “America’s Cup,” “The Weather,” “Daisy,” and the throwback classic “Giant Tortoise,” which got the crowd jumping. A comical moment occurred during the set when a fan threw a joint onto the stage, which leads singer Nick Allbrook would pick up between songs and comment how great it is now in 2022, with marijuana legalization that people can toss weed spliffs on the stage without any fear of legal repercussions.
At many points during the concert, the band would encourage dancing, and singer Nick Allbrook would engage in his usual theatrics throughout the set. Pond would come out for a final encore which sent all the fans in the venue home happy. Lee’s Palace is a historic venue in the city of Toronto which has survived for numerous decades against the odds but has also hosted some legendary bands in the past, like Nirvana and Oasis in their early years so I guess they can add Pond to the list of classic shows played there.
