Pond show why they are big fish
CONCERT Review: Matthew Hogan
Spinning Top Showcase
3.5 stars
Chevron Festival Gardens
Saturday 22 February 2014
The third Saturday night out at Festival Gardens for 2014 was a strictly local affair. Spinning Top Music has been championing some of Perth's best bands for nearly a decade and tonight some of their best and brightest came together under the city sky.
With a recent Warner Music distribution deal to her name, Felicity Groom showed off some new songs in her repertoire. Her new material hinted that her collaboration with beat maker Diger Rokwell is influencing her sound, while it was the familiar sounds of Trophy Talk that reminded us why she landed the deal in the first place.
Without a doubt the act that had punters most intrigued was AAA Aardvark Getdown Services. As soon as this gig was announced it was assumed that Tame Impala mastermind Kevin Parker was involved in this mystery act but it was unknown whether this would be Tame playing a secret set or just Parker jamming with friends. It was the latter, as Parker led three mates including the Growl main man Cameron Avery and former The Chemist head Ben Witt through a partly improvised party jam, with plenty of sampled vocals and enough disco riffs to make Nile Rodgers happy.
Parker conducted the jam from behind the drum kit, triggering samples as he went, and the songs were tailor made for booty shaking. It remains to be seen, though, whether these songs will remain a stand-alone project or find their way onto the follow-up to Lonerism.
Pond played much the same set that they've been doing through their summer of touring and it is so finely honed now that Nick Allbrook and company have absolutely no difficulty enthralling their home-town crowd. Those who have seen them in the past few months may have been expecting something different for this big headlining homecoming, such as more of a taste of their forthcoming Man, It Feels Like Space Again album, but as they ran through favourites like Xanman and Giant Tortoise, we were reminded that we're not quite done with their six-month- old album Hobo Rocket yet.
