The Joy Formidable & She Keeps Bees @ Mercury Lounge in NYC - pics & video

photos by Chris La Putt

Though I’m personally having trouble getting excited about the UK band, a wave of sudden hype (much of it from friends) got me out to Mercury Lounge last night to check out The Joy Formidable who were playing their second sold out show at the NYC venue in a week. People, many from the music industry and a bunch with accents similar to the band’s, were packed into the club that the three-piece rocked for less than an hour. And they do rock, especially animated front-woman Ritzy Bryan who simultaneously handles vocal duty, guitar and a large board of pedals. She/they were tight, loud and fun to watch. Many people around me were feeling more than that too. I expect to see them play somewhere at least as large as Bowery Ballroom for one or even two nights in a row next time they visit (which they promised was soon).

Their eight-song EP entitled A Balloon Called Moaning is out now in the USA on Black Bell Records (it was released in 2009 in the UK and before that in Japan). More pictures, including one of the setlist, from the Merc show (that She Keeps Bees also played), and a video, below…

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She Keeps Bees

Joy Formidable