We could not be happier to be back at The Pond. It is where Neon Belly
played its very first show in July, so getting invited back for October 3 felt
like coming home.
And we packed the house again. Wall to wall, the whole night. The Pond said
it better than we can on their own Instagram afterward: "Neon Belly tore it up,
the bar was packed wall to wall." We will happily take that.
We also added 13 new songs to our set list, so there is a lot more to hear
from us now than the last time you caught a show.
Thank you to The Pond for having us back, and to everyone who came out, sang
along, and stuck around for the last song.
What is next: we are looking for the final shows to round
out 2026, and we are starting to build our 2027 calendar. If you run a bar, a
club, or a private event, or you know someone who does, now is the time to
get us on the schedule.
And if you want to help, follow us on all of our socials and help us get
the word of Neon Belly out there. Share a post, tell a friend, tag your
favorite venue. It all helps.
Some rooms you walk into and immediately want to earn. Kimbro's is one of
those rooms, and for Hedge it was more than that: playing that stage has been
a specific, standing dream of his for years, long before Neon Belly existed to
make it happen.
If you have spent any time in Franklin you already know the Pickin' Parlor.
It sits two blocks off Main in the old Antique District, part former
neighborhood store, part Victorian cottage, open since 2005. Bluegrass one
night, honky tonk the next, blues after that. A lot of music has moved through
there. Getting our name on that calendar meant something to us before we ever
plugged in.
Then the room filled up. All the way to the back, and it stayed that way.
We ran 90s and 2000s rock all night and the crowd carried more of it than
we expected. There is a specific moment when a room stops being people who
happened to be out and turns into people who are here for this, and we felt it
land somewhere in the second set. Everything after that was easy.
Thanks to the crew at Kimbro's for looking after us, and to everyone who
stuck around to the last song and asked for one more.
Every band gets exactly one first show. Ours was July 11 at The Pond, and
we are still a little stunned at how it went.
The Pond has been Franklin's dive bar since 2005. Low ceiling, somewhere
north of a thousand tap handles hanging over your head, and a crowd of regulars
who will tell you exactly what they think of you. Room holds ninety. We watched
it fill up and then keep filling, until there was nowhere left to stand.
Nobody in that room had heard us play a note. They showed up anyway. That is
not a small thing for a band with no history to point at.
Three hours, 21 and up, and a set pulled straight from what we grew up on.
Nirvana, Sublime, Foo Fighters, Alice in Chains, Green Day, Weezer, Megadeth,
Stone Temple Pilots, 3 Doors Down, and a good stack more. Parts of it were
sharp. Parts of it were held together with tape and nerve. All of it was loud,
and we would not trade a second.
Thank you to The Pond for handing a brand new band a Saturday night, and to
everyone who took a chance on a name they had never seen before.
