The Joy Formidable at the Bowery Ballroom
September 11, 2022
This one’s a bit overdue.
I’ve always had a soft spot for The Joy Formidable, since I saw them at SXSW 2019. They played at an outdoor Doc Martens sponsored venue in the afternoon, and I was so impressed I saw them again later that night at their 2am show in the sketchy part of East Austin. Same set as the afternoon, but I didn’t care — they were awesome. In December 2019, they played a show at Rough Trade in New York, and they were just as solid.
During the Covid pandemic, I thought they did a great job of staying close to their fan base, offering up a membership in their club that included several livestream concert events — mostly acoustic work from Ritzy Bryan and Rhydian Dafydd, who were holed up someplace in Utah (go figure) but really well done and made good on their connection with us fans. I wrote about their pandemic work last year, which seems like forever ago, and you can read more about it here.
This year, they were back on tour, like many others. I was thrilled that they’d finally be able to return to New York after a three year absence. They played the Bowery Ballroom, and it was just like old times — Ritzy, Rhydian, and drummer Matt Thomas, who never goes anywhere without his massive drum kit and even more massive gong.
They played some of their old reliables, including The Greatest Light, Cradle, Austere, and Whirring (their finale). You can see a few clips from the show here. They also mixed in some numbers from their newest album, “Into The Blue”, which they developed during the pandemic. This is the first album I’ve actually appeared on. Well, sort of. My name appears (with many others) on the insert that comes with the album, as a “thank you” for supporting the band during the pandemic via their club membership. As others will attest, I have no musical talent whatsoever other than the skill of showing up at concerts, buying t-shirts, and tapping my foot like the Old Guy I am.
I think I will always be a TJF fan. The trio is so talented, so gracious, and so fun to watch. They play well across a broad swath of musical styles, and seem to be just as comfortable with the rockers, the Welsh ballads, and have so much fun just being themselves. What a breath of fresh air they are.