[Joy Formidable at Union Hall the night before Pianos]
[photo courtesy of Erin Friedmann]
I had been aware of the excellent Welsh trio The Joy Formidable for more than a year — following their growth in part through the meticulous documentation of their live shows by some excellent UK tapers. When we learned through an email that the band would make their first trip stateside for three gigs in NYC, I knew that we would have to take in at least one show, and the excellent and intimate Pianos gig was chosen. With the band’s blessing, at last night’s show we set up a four channel mix directly in front of the soundboard and were immediately crushed by the wall to wall crowd. From the very first notes of their set, we were absolutely floored by the intensity, tightness and superb musicality of The Joy Formidable. By the time the band reached the crescendo of the third number “The Last Drop”, repeating the hook “how come its all around me” over sheets of guitar and thundering bass, I was thoroughly addicted to TJF. When the forty-minute set concluded with a wild “Whirring” featuring a full noise and feedback cacophony session, we realized the obvious. The Joy Formidable will be huge. This is a forgone conclusion. The other obvious fact is that the next time the band returns to NYC (guitarist/vocalist Ritzy Bryan promised “later in the year”), the venues will be much larger than Pianos. Last night will be one of those “we saw them back then” nights, and we were lucky to be there.
This set was recorded under the perfect conditions. The main room at Pianos has never sounded better. The location of the microphones and the well balanced feed were mixed in perfect compliment. We are proud to present a recording of this superb quality. Enjoy!
Direct download of MP3 files (HERE)
Download the Complete show in FLAC [HERE].
The Joy Formidable
2010-01-12
Pianos
New York, NY USA
Digital Master Recording
Soundboard + Audience Matrix
Soundboard + Neumann KM-150s > Edirol R-44 (Oade Concert Mod) > 2x 24bit 48kHz wav files > Soundforge (level adjustments, mixdown, set fades) > CDWave 1.95 (tracking) > Flac Frontend (level 7, align sector boundaries) > flac
Recorded and Produced by nyctaper
2010-01-13
Setlist:
[Total Time 41:22]
01 The Greatest Light Is the Greatest Shade
02 Cradle
03 The Last Drop
04 Austere
05 Ostrich
06 Magnifying Glass
07 Anemone
08 [band thanks]
09 Whirring
If you email nyctaper for access to this recording, we expect that you will PLEASE SUPPORT The Joy Formidable, visit their website, and purchase their debut album A Balloon Called Moaning from Shop link at their website [here].
happy. camper.
thanks!
Thanks a lot for this. Looking forward to seeing them in March :-)
Thanks to the U.S tapers for keeping “The Joy” alive and well, we’ll repay the favour in March when they go on tour….
What a crackerjack of a recording. As Whiskybob says we’ll do our best to get some decent recordings from the UK tour (I’ll hopefully be covering three shows in the midlands), but to be honest I don’t have a hope of achieving anything that sounds as good as this.
Many many thanks once again.
Funnily enough I’ve only just discovered nyctaper, and then you go and cover the best up and coming band around anywhere at the moment. Catch them while they are still small enough to chat to, they are the nicest people in the world. And despite the fact they give their music away, go and buy something too from their shop
Thanks for putting this up! This band is a current obsession of mine, and being all the way out here in the SF Bay, I was sad about the NYC-only nature of this visit.
Next time, though, I’m making the trip, as I’ve already got tickets to the Mercury Lounge show in May.
a great recording of a great band-but buy something from their site. not everything is free.
I was there at Union Hall and Pianos. It was shocking to see a band this good at venues that small. But you’re right — this can’t last much longer and even the Mercury Lounge gig in May will be too small. The Joy are on the cusp of truly blowing up.
For fans who want to know how good The Joy can sound live, I highly recommend getting their live CD “First You Have To Get Mad” available at their website. It took a while to arrive from the UK but totally worth it. I can’t wait to hear this recording of the Pianos set, which was fantastic.
whiskybob told me that I needed to check out this band, so I’m listening to your recording as I type this. TJF do, indeed, make a jolly good racket.
A flawless recording that sounds like FM radio. A fabulous recording set-up you have, that’s for sure.
Many thanks.
thanks for sharing this recording!
Thanks–Just discovered these folks, and going to see them at Webster Hall in April!! This recording is awesome–Thanks again, Dan