The Joy Formidable

with

The Lonely Forest and Mona

by: Joe Toeben

 

The opening band, The Lonely Forest, is an indie rock band originating from the state of Washington.  Ironically the bands lead singer was born in Minneapolis which is where tonight’s concert took place.  A four piece band, made of all guys, The Lonely Forest looked more like a bunch of college kids at first getting ready to do not much more than jump around on stage.  It wasn’t until they started playing that one realized the true genius of their sound.  The lead singer, John, sounded so similar to Justin Pierre from Motion City Soundtrack it’s as if they were twins separated at birth.  Although it’s probably easiest to throw the bland indie label on them at times they almost reminded me of some 90′s midwest emo bands like Sunny Day Real Estate or The Get Up Kids (late 1999).  With a very upbeat and heavy sound for such a band, The Lonely Forest is definitely one to see even if they were to come around as a headliner.

The second band to play was a band called Mona, nope just guys in this band.  They were your standard fare alternative rock band and not much more.  At the end of The Lonely Forest’s set they dedicated a song to Mona because they would be dropping off the rest of the tour (didn’t give a reason) and that set up a pretty disappointing set for them.  Their songs weren’t anything special, their singer attempted raw emotion in his vocal performance but it just wasn’t there for him.  After their set they packed up their merch station and went and hid somewhere disappointing numerous fans who lined up to purchase merchandise afterwards.

The headliner, The Joy Formidable, a three piece indie band from Wales had arrived just about 10 minutes before their set was to start.  A couple weeks before I attended this show someone online told me that The Joy Formidable were one of the best live acts of 2011 and that statement was entirely true.  Their performance didn’t change the sound of the songs so much that it was a bad thing but they added a needed intensity to the performance that gave the band an entirely different feeling.  You could watch the music video for songs like “Austre” or “Cradle” as many times as you want but you won’t believe it until you see Ritzy shredding the guitar to “Chapter 2″ and the like at a live show.  When Ritzy walked in to the venue she walked right next to me through the crowd holding a coffee but by the performance she supplied that cup was likely full of nothing but espresso.  The set ended with a long fuzzy, guitar driven jam until Ritzy threw her guitar down, hands in the air and walked off stage.  After the guitar tech rushed on stage to fix the guitar did most of the crowd realize that there wouldn’t be an encore.  Successful night, many favorites played and the discovery of what will probably become one of the best albums of 2011.

TJF Myspace: http://www.myspace.com/thejoyformidable

Buy the new album: http://store.thejoyformidable.com/

The Lonely Forest Myspace: http://www.thelonelyforest.com/

The Lonely Forest ‘Arrows’ iTunes: http://tinyurl.com/69ltqt4

Mona Myspace: http://www.myspace.com/monatheband