The Joy Formidable at The Mod Club

It’s hard to believe it’s been almost 10 years since The Joy Formidable first got their start. Following the release of the alt-rock Welsh band’s third album, Hitch, earlier this year, the musical trio – comprised of Rhiannon “Ritzy” Bryan (lead vocals/guitar), Rhydian Dafydd (bass, backing vocals), and Matthew James Thomas (drums, percussion) – took over The Mod Club stage during Toronto’s annual NXNE festival. Playing in one of the festival’s larger enclosed venues, (hooray for A/C!), the band drew a sizeable crowd, most of whom seemed to be vetted fans, singing along with tracks old and new. Delivering an energetic set with a consistent voltage from beginning to end, the band’s shoegaze sound – similar in style to Camera Obscura – literally rocked the house. Rounding-out their show with “Whirring”, perhaps one of the band’s most popular tracks and a bonafide crowd-pleaser, the Joy Formidable proved to be an engaging, down-to-earth band with a proven ability to produce and perform.

NXNE Indigenous Showcase at The Great Hall

NXNE’s Indigenous Showcase, co-presented by iNATIVEfest and Gunner Records, was a curated set of upcoming and established Indigenous artists, playing against the grandeur of The Great Hall. The night kicked-off with DJ Shub, aka Dan General, formerly of A Tribe Called Red. Crafting a huge sound for just one artist, Shub’s electric hooks harkened back to his Tribe Called Red days, by merging traditional Indigenous music with heavy beats. Cranking-up the electro-influence, the encompassing beauty of traditional singing echoing throughout the Hall was undeniably inspiring, and even spiritual. Shub also managed to weave-in a few contemporary(ish) artists, including Adele and Mark Morrison.

Next up was Mariame, a Cree-Algerian singer, born and raised in Montreal, with a striking physical (and, at times, even vocal) resemblance to late songstress Selena Quintanilla. Playing a stripped-down set with only a laptop as her accompaniment, Mariame’s clear, powerful vocals rocked the Hall in a truly refreshing style. In fact, it almost felt as if Mariame teleported straight out of the late ‘90s, channeling a hip-hop, love ballad vibe à la Aaliyah or Mya. Despite lacking an instrumental presence, she offered a beautiful blend of pop songs, both original and covers.

Third in the Indigenous Showcase was Shawnee, a Mohawk singer originally from Welland, Ontario. Joined onstage by a rad four-piece band – two women and two men – the firecracker musician, decked-out in a Sgt. Pepper flaming red jacket, brought a roots-infused rock ‘n roll sound that landed somewhere between Amanda Marshall and Melissa Etheridge (unsurprisingly, one of her largest influences). Despite facing a sparse crowd, a common state throughout the night, Shawnee delivered a power-packed show that filled the house with serious sonic energy.

Dan Mangan, The Zolas, and Mother Mother at the Port Lands

Nestled in a parking lot, just south of the Gardiner Expressway, the NXNE Port Lands shows unfolded beneath a blazing summer sun.

Vancouver-based Dan Mangan managed to cool things down – in vibe, at least – by playing a set that included a chronology of emotive tracks off his past albums and EPs. With a distinct edge to his voice – a grit that is truly captivating in its strength – Mangan and his band drew a sizeable crowd that was happy to stand, sway, and lounge on beanbag chairs scattered throughout the lot. Highlighting with “Pine for Cedars”, a track from his 2009 album, Nice, Nice, Very Nice, and “Rows of Houses”, off his 2011 LP, Oh Fortune, plus a sweet birthday shout out to Mangan’s dad, the show was a standout from the day’s performances.

Another melodic squad from Van-city, The Zolas took over the southerly stage following Dan Mangan. Crafting an authentically laidback, West Coast tone through both their sound and onstage presence, the four members kept the crowd lax, hitting a sweet chord with cosmic indie ballad, “Ancient Mars”. A group that’s gained significant traction since releasing their first album in 2009, these guys have managed to remain consistent through their music, including on their most recent LP – Swooner. All-in-all, a pleasure to watch live, particularly with a cider in-hand.

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Playing to a sold-out crowd at Toronto’s Lee’s Palace on Monday night – the last show of The Joy Formidable’s North American tour and their final show in support of The Big Roar – is was clear from the moment the trio launched into set opener “A Heavy Abacus” that there’s far more power and energy to this band than can be captured on an album. The crowd – which, in typical Toronto fashion, was only mildly enthusiastic when Bryan and co. walked on stage to a recording of crashing waves – was in frenzy by the time the opening song came to a loud, pulsating finish. It was a scene that would be repeated throughout the night. If there is one thing The Joy Formidable do incredibly well live, it’s build a song into a mesmerizing finale.

Clad in a pink dress with bleach-blonde hair, Bryan worked the crowd like a true rock star. Building tension with the audience through gestures both subtle and dramatic, the sweet looking woman then launched herself around the stage like a pinball, banging into bassist Rhydian Dafydd and kicking the symbols of Matt Thomas’ drum set. It was as if Tinker Bell left Neverland, discovered rock and roll, and joined a badass rock band. Thomas – whose drums were setup at the front of the stage and to the right so his hyperactive playing was on full display – provided the show’s comic relief. He spoke hilarious nonsense between songs before flailing about like a madman on speed while remaining amazingly precise with this playing.

The thing that was striking as the band rolled through its 12-song set is that nearly every tune could be a show-closer. Songs like “Cradle,” “I Don’t Want to See You Like This,” and “The Everchanging Spectrum of a Lie” all contain the catchy hooks, big choruses, and even bigger instrumental climaxes that could easily provide a thrilling finale to any show.  Of course, when a band fits songs like those into the middle of a set list, the actual show-closer better be stunning.

After kicking off the two-song encore with a new acoustic number, “Silent Treatment,” off their yet untitled sophomore album, the band, accompanied by a harp player for the song’s intro, closed the show with fan-favourite “Whirring”. I’m not sure if the band ends every show like this or if it was because it was the last show of the tour, but Bryan, Dafydd, and Thomas seemed determined to leave every ounce of energy on the stage.

After building the song into tense, loud, and pounding climax, Bryan got down on her knees, grinded her guitar into the amps, slammed it on stage, and then got up and pounded it into a large gong at the back of the stage. As her bandmates tried to keep any semblance of the song intact, Bryan began ripping apart the drum set as Thomas kept playing. With an intense look on her face, Bryan then stormed off stage, seemingly too wound-up for pleasantries. But after an enthralling display of raw emotion like that, pleasantries would’ve just ruined the mood.

It’s easy to be impressed by a band in a live setting. Especially a band whose songs you already know and like. But it’s rare for a band to completely blow away your expectations like The Joy Formidable did on Monday night. Hopefully they’re back before too long.

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The singer’s job on-stage is to be the focal point, the center of the action, the ring master keeping the crowd at bay and pulling them along on a journey.

On stage, Ritzy Bryan – singer, guitarist, and one third of The Joy Formidable – wails about, wringing every last decibel of noise out of her guitar, intensity in her eyes as her powerful voice leaps out over this massive wall of sound.

In essence, it’s the complete opposite of what I hear on the other end of the phone: a quiet, soft-spoken Welsh accent, pausing regularly to think of her answers, and punctuating her sentences with an inquisitory “you know?” Hard to imagine that she is the driving force, along with bassist Rhydian Dafydd, of one the most powerful trios that the UK has produced in some time.

Unlike some new bands (see Arctic Monkeys) who seemingly come out of nowhere and are on the cover of NME overnight, it’s been a long road for The Joy Formidable. The band is really the end result of two frustrating attempts at carving out a spot in the music business. Before the Joy Formidable, Bryan and Dafydd played together in Manchester, England’s Tricky Nixon (2003-06) and the short lived Sidecar Kisses (2006-07).

“They feel like another lifetime in a lot of respects,” says Bryan over the line. “[Tricky Nixon and Sidecar Kisses] were doomed by very, very difficult dynamics from the start, you know?” For good reason she declines to get into the specifics, only saying, “We were very unhappy about the song-writing process, and the feel of either of those bands just didn’t feel right.”

Disappointed and frustrated with their time in Sidecar Kisses and its quick dissolution, Bryan and Dayfdd headed back to their home in North Wales to write new songs and plot their next move. “It [felt] kind of like a clean slate because it marked the very first time that Rhydian and I had written together and also the first time that I sang lead vocals,” explains Bryan. “Given the circumstances that we had, it certainly had a kind of depressing six months or year between the two projects and the very onset of the Joy Formidable. It was very exciting and free of bullshit and egos and, you know, ridiculous things getting in the way. It was very much about being free with the songwriting and the music taking the precedent and we were very, very ready for that; we were hungry for it.”

It helped, of course, that Bryan and Dafydd had immediate songwriting chemistry, something that’s obvious in the Joy Formidable’s songs, which combine a massive wall-of-sound approach, filled with distortion and reverb, with poppy melodies and hooks.  “The minute you enter into a songwriting partnership with anybody, you have to fucking lay yourself bare; you kind of have to get naked with this person on some creative level. There’s not many people that you can do that with and get a reaction that helps you to be able to keep doing that. We felt very invigorated by it because certainly it’s not about the ego; it’s about really getting off on the music and the meaning.”

Bryan and Dafydd soon moved to London, recruited a new drummer, Matt Thomas, hit the UK live circuit, and starting releasing new music. From the start, the band – signed to Canvasback Music/Atlantic Records – were determined to do it their way, even if that meant waiting three years between their debut single and debut album, “The Big Roar,” releasing a live album before a studio album, and producing most of the music themselves (with a bit of help from producer Rich Costey of Foo Fighters, Muse, and Glasvegas fame).

“We’ve always had creative control and we still do, and I think that is the most dangerous thing; when you lose that you start becoming a puppet to any external force guiding the band,” explains Bryan. “If you get that and keep that, then the journey becomes your own and you can judge every day as it comes and not have any regrets.”

Luckily for fans, that journey includes a North American tour that kicks off on March 12 and 13 with two sold out shows in San Francisco and ends April 2 with a sold out show in Toronto.

“We’re not up there going through the motions and it’s not a job. It’s not like every night is just a replication of the night before or a replication of the album. It’s about the live show having a life and a momentum that is unique to the circumstances of that setting and that night and that audience,” says Bryan, explaining why she, Dafydd, and Thomas love to be constantly on tour and ending it with an example from their last American tour.

“We played a tiny show in a basement in Columbus, Ohio and I think it was, like, a Monday night and it had been raining all day and it was so gloomy. It was before the album and we didn’t know what sort of show this was and we saw the signs and all of that and thought it was going to be quite a relaxed affair. I think they were one of the most exuberant crowds of people that we’d ever, ever come across. I mean they were just so happy. That is something that we absolutely love about the live experience.”

Fortunately for those not lucky enough to get tickets, there’s a recently completed album  of new material set to come out later this year.

Given that Bryan describes herself as “a real creature of nature” and says her ideal location for a concert would be in a cave, the band retreated to rural Maine to record.

“A very nice, quiet part of Maine up in the woods in a log cabin away from it all with no phone signal and I think we were just very ready to get back in the studio and the album has been realized very quickly,” says Bryan, adding, “We’ve always certainly experimented with different sounds. We never wanted to plateau. We’re always looking to evolve as a band, and we’ve certainly done that with this new album.”

With determination, a new album, a well-honed live show, and a sound so big it would seem right at home on Glastonbury’s Pyramid Stage, there is little rest in sight for The Joy Formidable. That’s why they’re taking it one day at a time.

“It’s always kind of dangerous to start by studying things too much or analyzing where you are. The only thing where we are completely preoccupied with is the music and making the record the best record we possibly can and making the live shows the best they can possibly be. And anything outside of that –  well you kind of just let it be.”

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