Photo courtesy of Richmond Community College
The Ponder Project is now made up of John Baker, Shot Allen, Kevin Butler, Billie Adeimy, Jason Singleton and Bobby Pearce, with Anakin Storm White (not pictured) preparing to replace Allen on drums.
The Ponder Project is set to take the stage backed by the sound from their own equipment for the first time since their trailer was stolen in October 2019.
The Richmond County-born band will helm the second week of Richmond Community College’s new “Car-cert” series, which allows audience members to enjoy live music from their cars — with the option of tuning to a special radio station — while social distancing. Since the trailer was stolen, the band has played with borrowed or contributed equipment from local supporters, but learned this summer that insurance would replace their losses.
The show will be held at 6 p.m. on Friday, Oct. 2 in the parking lot of the Cole Auditorium located at 1042 W. Hamlet Ave., Hamlet. For ticket information, call the Cole Auditorium Box Office at (910) 410-1691 or visit www.richmondcc.edu/carcertsatthecole.
“It’s our first show done under our own power and we want everyone to come out and support live music,” said Bobby Pearce, a founding member of the band and their sound engineer. “All we’ve been doing is practicing so it should be a pretty kick-a** show.”
He added that if the band members didn’t have practice to fall back on during this time of limited social gathering, “we’d all have gone crazy.”
“(The COVID-19 shutdown) brought us closer together, the band gave us an outlet during these pretty rough times,” he said. “But we’re ready to share the talent that we’ve got in the band.”
Going forward, Pearce said the band doesn’t expect venues to be holding live shows until they’re allowed to be open at at least 75% capacity. Normally they would be doing at least two performances a month. Pearce said the “car-cert” idea gives people who are suffering from “cabin fever” a way to get out and have fun safely.
On behalf of the band, Pearce expressed gratitude to the Ponder Army — their most die-hard fans — and the broader Richmond County music community that has supported them through this difficult period. They reached 32,000 people on Facebook through fans sharing their post about the missing trailer, which provided valuable information to the Hamlet Police Department.
Pearce said that without Diane Mabe, who happened to see the truck driving away with the trailer and cared enough about it to post what she saw on Facebook, they never would have known what had happened to it. Mabe’s eye witness account also helped investigators pull surveillance footage that eventually identified the truck and lead to them identifying the suspect.
The band also thanked TRG Signs in Hamlet who did the decal on the band’s new trailer, David Woods and Keri Humann of Classic Apparel, Johnaton of Sweetwater Music and Jeff Graves of Allstate. Steve Arey has also been a major supporter, Pearce said, loaning them equipment and helping in other ways for about a year.
Though they have new equipment and a trailer, there are some things they won’t get back. Not only the missed shows in the immediate aftermath of losing the trailer and those cancelled due to COVID-19, but sentimental items that carried the memory of the two bandmates they lost in 2016 and 2017: Joe Harris and Tommy Adeimy, who died within 330 days of each other. The trailer had help onto their equipment which the band no longer used, including a microphone of Joe’s.
“They even stole our tip jar,” Pearce said.
The band formed in the mid-90s under the name Stark Raving with the core members being Pearce, Harris and Adeimy, and Shot Allen, who is set to retire from the band. They later became Ponder Blue, then Ponder, and now The Ponder Project since Adeimy and Harris’ deaths. The band is now made up of John Baker on guitar and vocals, Shot Allen on drums, Kevin Butler on lead vocals, Billie Adeimy on lead vocals and keyboard, Jason Singleton on bass and Pearce as the sound engineer, with Anakin Storm White preparing to replace Allen on drums.
Pearce said the band members have all bought into the “Ponder state of mind.”
“It’s the peace you find in music — peace, love, hope,” Pearce said of what it means to embody the “Ponder state of mind.” “It’s the enjoyment of it, the thrill of it. Friendship, communion.”
Reach Gavin Stone at 910-817-2673 or [email protected].