If you play a single Pony song, ANY song, you will immediately see why I am so head over heels with the band. I came across the band during the pandemic when I was searching for music to help me feel OK with the world, and both the albums TV Baby (2021) and Velveteen (2022) remain in heavy rotation for me; a true rarity as my days tend to be spent consuming new music, leaving little time to return to my faves. But for Pony I made an exception.
Pony is based in Toronto and traffics in loud, jubilantly fuzzy rock and their music has that unique quality of always falling on my ears sounding fresh and new, no matter how many times I play one of their albums. Think big guitars, tons of hooks and sing-along choruses. And those melodies just get lodged in your head; y'know, super-fun rock and/or roll you wanna jump around while you sing kinda stuff. It's a seemingly simple formula that is hard to pull off as well as Pony consistently does.
Pony 100% falls into the category of "they should be huge!" but simply haven't snagged enough ears yet. That may soon change as the group is currently on an opening tour for the critically lauded Drug Church, and I am hopeful mainstream acclaim will soon come their way. And based on their latest singles teasing the new album, I think that time is near. But you still have a chance to catch the band while they're still on the cusp of stardom!
Since Drug Church isn't playing Chicago, Pony booked a show at Subterranean on their off day, jumping on a bill with Modern Color and Soul Blind. It's a super-early show on Friday, October 18—doors at 5pm with Pony onstage at 6pm—but if you can make it to Subterranean and catch Pony now, you will be thanking me later. I promise.