Putting on the Ritz-y

Last night, Erika and I hit up the classiest venue I've ever been at, Lincoln Hall, to see The Joy Formidable. I feel like you can tell a lot about a venue by their bathrooms, and let me tell you, these were some immaculate bathrooms. You could eat off the floor in that place- a heavy abuse of that expression, I know, but you get my point: the place was ship-shape. My only complaint was that there were soooooo many dudes, which was really weird. I initially thought/hoped that, given the pop-ish type melodies of the band, there'd be a plethora of adorably-hip 20-somethings, but nope; just a bunch of hairy, old dudes. (Speaking of hairy, old dudes, tUnE-yArDs, a Lymph Node favorite, will be playing in May at Lincoln Hall. I'm totally pumped for that show, since Merrill Garbus is my homeboy homegirl.)

A little background on the band first: Ritzy Bryan (vocal, guitar), Rhydian Dafydd (bass, backing vocals), and Matt Thomas (drums) make up this North Wales crew. They've been around for a few years, but only recently have they truly been garnering notoriety. Making their second trip to Chicago, they are currently on tour promoting their debut album, The Big Roar, released this past January off Atlantic. Before the concert, I wouldn't have described their sound as terribly original, simply following safely on the poppier side of the rock spectrum. But all-in-all, an album that is in regular rotation on my iTunes. Oh and did I mention that she is approximately yay gorgeous? (shout out to Space Invaders on the pic below)

I went in semi-excited about the concert; I had listen to their whole album several times, so I felt familiar with the band. They definitely seemed to be more of a guilty pleasure for me than some great cause with which to align myself. But from the very first number, this concert sure changed my perception of these Welshian wonders.

They commenced the show with "The Everchanging Spectrum of a Lie", the opening track off Roar. It became immediately apparent that these musicians were not fucking around, aside from some impish pushing and shoving on stage between Dafydd and Ritzy (which made me and every other male embarrassingly jealous). I can only hope that they are cousins; but then again, I don't know how they roll over in Wales. Anyways, Thomas and Dayfdd starting pounding away from the get-go, and I was startled at this unexpected flexing of their face-melting, musical muscles.

The menacing ferocity with which they were cranking out these songs I had considered simple was juxtaposed against the known commodity of Ritzy's vocals. She ranged adroitly from delicately seductive to haunting, the coos of intertwined lovers to eerie, stone-well echoes, and the result was mesmerizing. I liken this combination to the visible killer instinct creeping, mid-race, onto the delicate countenance of elite female harriers, i.e. the unflappable Heather Dorniden. The intervals I would do with that girl... and, being the running nerd I am,  I mean that in the most non-venereal sense.

And the mates carried this energy throughout the entire set, setting high points at Roar standouts "Austere", "Cradle" and my personal favorite "Whirring", in which Ritzy's opening lines saying, "this much delight, fills columns to new heights" seem to perfectly capture the blissful nature of the show. After a brief respite from the musical onslaught, the band mates returned to the stage to close with "A Heavy Abacus", a slow-building snowball of a tune, that flowed seamlessly into the album's quintessential instance of Ritzy's vocal dichotomy: whispering verses preceded a mounting mantra that gains power with each utterance. "Abacus haunting me!" she belts, to which my only response is a sassy "girl, please!" Everyone is the audience knows that the only haunting being done is by the coquettish, straight-banged beauty with the mic.

Whirring by The Joy Formidable

Download here with "Austere" and "Cradle" as well. Just scroll down and click-and-drag the mp3 link right into your download window.