Welsh trio The Joy Formidable returned in September with their new album AAARTH, which seems to be one of the most overlooked records of 2018 so far. The record, which is their fourth, is yet another solid effort from the band who take their sound to exciting new heights.
On November 9 their U.S. tour in support of the album brought them back to New York (we caught them last year at Le Poisson Rouge) on the night of November 9 for performance at Music Hall of Williamsburg along with openers Tancred (who we saw open for Julien Baker at White Eagle Hall a few months back).
Somehow throughout the years, I have only seen The Joy Formidable play once and it was for a brief moment while shooting the first three songs of their set at the Landmark Music Festival back in 2015. So essentially this performance as my first true time experiencing all that their live show had to offer and man, they didn’t disappoint one bit.
They lifted their set off with “This Ladder Is Ours,” and I was absolutely astonished by the amount of sheer pummeling energy that the trio of guitarist/singer Ritzy Bryan, bassist/singer Rhydian Dafydd and drummer Matthew James Thomas came out with right from the very start. This energy was truly relentless throughout their set, which paired nicely with bits of humor and levity both during their performance (such as Dafydd playfully messing up Bryan’s hair and pinching her nose and James Thomas teasing fans about hitting the giant gong that was perched behind his drumkit), making for a great performance all-around.
Find the setlists and full photo galleries for both Tancred and The Joy Formidable posted below.
Tancred:
Tancred setlist:
1. Bed Case
2. Joey
3. Queen of New York
4. Hot Star
5. Apple Tree Girl
6. Reviews
7. Clipping
8. Underwear
9. Not Likely
10. Something Else
11. Pens
12. Pretty Girls
The Joy Formidable:
The Joy Formidable setlist:
1. This Ladder Is Ours
2. Cradle
3. The Greatest Light Is the Greatest Shade
4. Y Bluen Eira
5. Passerby
6. Ostrich
7. Cicada (Land on Your Back)
8. A Heavy Abacus
9. Buoy
10. The Wrong Side
11. The Everchanging Spectrum of a Lie
Encore:
12. The Leopard and the Lung
3. 1The Better Me
14. Whirring
Join the conversation