The Joy Formidable + The Lonely Forest - Webster Hall (New York, NY; Apr. 29, 20110

Damn can Ritzy Bryan lead a band. The pixie-sized frontwoman of The Joy Formidable is a Tasmanian devil of energy, possessed and possessive on stage while leading her three-piece band through a slew of songs that leave the audience reeling. In the interstitial moments, when the amps are silent but for the remnant buzz, Bryan is polite and charming; during songs, though, she’s a force to be reckoned with.

On Friday night at Webster Hall, Bryan and her band kicked the weekend off right with a show that attendees are unlikely to forget any time soon. Standing next to me at the show were a brother and sister who had made the trek to NYC after seeing the band in Harrisburg at the beginning of this month; in a day and age where fans can barely be bothered to cop free tracks or go out of their way for a concert, the fact that people drove three hours to see this show is about as much evidence as I can give that The Joy Formidable is worth seeing live.

Friday night’s excellence began with a set from The Lonely Forest, a band of dudes from Anacortes, Washington. “After this show,” announced lead singer John Van Deusen, “we get on a plane and go home!”

Despite it being the last night of a long tour, The Lonely Forest were full of energy, jumping around the stage, tongues waggling. Their sound has a distinctly northwestern feel to it – Van Deusen’s voice, in particular, sounds like Colin Melow, the oaky-voiced leader of The Decemberists – but it channels more swelling rock guitars than I’m used to from those bands. This is no folk outfit; The Lonely Forest has a knack for infectious riffs, impressive lyrics, and great showmanship, dialed up on the amps. It’s no surprise that the band has a fan in Death Cab for Cutie’s Chris Walla, who produced their debut album. In many ways, The Lonely Forest have the potential to become the band that Death Cab has always wanted to be. Songs like “Turn Off This Song and Go Outside” and “I Don’t Want To Live There” had the crowd rocking along as if The Lonely Forest were the big font on the billing.

Following The Lonely Forest was The Joy Formidable, far from their home in North Wales. Playing on a stage stocked with vintage furniture, rugs, candles, and a load of rubber black cats, The Joy Formidable looked a bit like they were playing a living room house party on Halloween. No matter. They rocked out like there was no tomorrow and made everyone at the show forget what month it is anyway. The show was frenetic and cathartic – everything you could ask for on a Friday night.

The Joy Formidable kicked off with the two opening tracks from their debut album, The Big Roar. Ripping through “The Everchanging Spectrum Of A Lie” and “The Magnifying Glass,” the band set the stage for the evening: Epically large tunes stuffed to the gills with full-throated vocals and enough dynamic swings to make Mumford and Sons seem monotonous.

Bryan is as captivating a bandleader as there is around, drawing the attention away from bassist Rhydian Dafydd and very talented drummer Matt Thomas. All eyes are on Ritzy as she prowls the stage, leaning back to shred her guitar, eyeballs leaping out of her head. Thomas is as good a drummer as you’ll see on the indie rock circuit, and the fact that he is the de facto pace-setter for The Joy Formidable is a testament to his backseat driving. Although his presence is absolutely necessary on every track, he only steals the spotlight when Bryan scoots his way for a face-to-face jam.

As track after track hit its mark, it dawned on me that – slowly but surely –The Joy Formidable seems to be blooming into a honest-to-goodness band, with songs that leave the crowd yelling for more. The band had a slow start, to the point that I doubted their ability to produce consistently impressive music. But after riding on the coattails of “Whirring” for over two years, the trio has crafted a handful of songs that can stand up to the hefty weight of that track; “Austere,” “Cradle,” and encore “A Heavy Abacus” all slayed, and the choice to end the concert on that last track – my favorite of the band’s repertoire – signals a move in the right direction. There may still lulls in the band’s oeuvre, but the peaks are rising ever higher.

In the end, the fact of the matter is that Ritzy Bryan and her bandmates straight up know how to put on a show. On Friday night at Webster Hall, they set up the living room and then knocked the walls down, inviting us to make ourselves comfortable as they melted faces. Mixing charming accents, genuine gratitude, and waves of guitar-driven sound, The Joy Formidable ended their U.S. tour on a high note; if the lingering of the crowd after the last note of “Abacus” is any indication – Is it over? Does it have to be?—they’ll be back soon.

Setlist:
The Everchanging Spectrum Of A Lie
The Magnifying Glass
Austere
The Greatest Light Is The Greatest Shade
Cradle
Buoy
I Don’t Want To See You Like This
9669
Whirring
Encore:
Maruyama
A Heavy Abacus

DOWNLOAD: The Joy Formidable + The Lonely Forest - Cradle (MP3) or Follow us for more The Joy Formidable + The Lonely Forest MP3s (Twitter)

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