While every other day of the week has a generally accepted “feel” to them — Monday being the worst, Wednesday’s “hump day,” Thursday is “ladies’ night,” Friday and Saturday are intended to be a blur of sorts, with Sunday solely for football — it should come as no surprise then that Tuesday has a bit of a chip on its shoulder.
Perhaps it feels that it has something to prove or that it has some catching up to do. However you look at it, this past Tuesday night at the Rhythm Room, bands Joy Formidable and opener Lonely Forest made quite an impressionable appeal for this forgotten day of the week, along with those in attendance.
Having played a small acoustic set earlier that day at the Zia Records store off Indian School in Phoenix, a self admitted rare departure from their normal live show presence, Joy Formidable took the stage later that evening at the Rhythm Room plugged in, amped up and ready to rock.
Ripping right into the first track off their first full-length album “The Big Roar,” singer and lead guitarist Ritzy Bryan did just that as she sang “The Everchanging Spectrum of a Lie.” Bouncing back and forth while starring with a wild and heated passion into the crowd, Bryan made her offerings known by singing, “I hope the fears are buried beneath my love.”
Long time friend and bass player Rhydian Dafydd spared no expense as he flung his bass around in a truly Thor-like manner. Hammering alongside from across the stage with drummer Matt Thomas, who played every song as if it was his last. What seemed like nothing more than a barrage of hair, sweat and appendages, Thomas beat with a precision intensity that lasted throughout the night — which might actually still be present today in and around the 85014 zip code.
While this is the band’s first full-length album and headlining national tour, this trio from Wales and London showed no signs of being rookies on stage. Each song played well into the next, and the dialogue between the fans and the band helped maintain the intimate setting that Rhythm Room is notorious for.
“Buoy,” one of the more adventurous tracks on the album, seemed a little off Tuesday night, but practice makes perfect and soon this will prove to be a live show staple for Joy Formidable. “Whirring,” which can also be found on the bands earlier EP release “A Balloon Called Moaning,” highlighted exactly the full-bodied, thick and juicy deliverance of their all encompassing sound. The studio track is but a slice, where the live show serves the complete pie squarely on your chin.
The real treat came in the way of “A Heavy Abacus,” the last song of the evening, which can only be found on the full-length album “The Big Roar.” A ballad of frustration and possible failure, the song manages to inspire just the opposite, while also proving (in my mind at least) that math — along with the instruments used in its vain, e.g. the abacus, are doing more harm than good. Like Wayne Campbell from Wayne’s World said, “Math is an exact science that leaves little to no room for interpretation,” and who wants to live in a world with limitations? Not Wayne, not those who go out on a Tuesday night and certainly not Joy Formidable — that much was made very clear.
Reach the reporter at jbfortne@asu.edu
