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12/22/2019

The Joy Formidable and Twen at the Doug Fir Lounge, Portland Or on 12/18/19 / Review & Photos

Story by SARAH PAYNE / Photos by BENJAMIN MAH // 10 years running, and the threesome are still a cohesive, tight unit — a dysfunctional family, as Bryan puts it. Although they tease and joke, it’s clear that there’s a lot of love for each other, for the music and for the pure joy of sharing it with their fans and audience.

Review: The Joy Formidable, Twen played the Doug Fir on Dec. 18
By Sarah Payne // Photos by Benjamin Mah

The Joy Formidable returned to Portland and the Doug Fir last week, celebrating the 10 years since the release of their debut EP, A Balloon Called Moaning.

The Joy Formidable formed in 2007, after childhood friends, once-couple and longtime music collaborators Rhiannon “Ritzy” Bryan and Rhydian Dafydd returned to their native Wales from Manchester. (Drummer Matthew Thomas joined the band in 2009.)

In a recent interview with Oregon Music News, Bryan mentioned that she is of the school of writers who writes what they feel, an observation that is clearly visible in the way Bryan, Dafydd and Thomas all play their music. As Bryan sings the last few lines of “The Greatest Light is the Greatest Shade,” she punches out “I can be happy for you, happy for you, happy for you,” with such pained conviction, that it’s entirely too easy to get swept up in her wave of emotion. Seeing The Joy Formidable live is seeing the way they feel the music, which manifests with such physicality that it’s accurate to say that The Joy Formidable rocks, and rocks hard. And it’s this feeling, the emotions of a lived experience, behind the voices and behind the instruments that serves to amplify the power of their music, both live and recorded.

The band opened the show by playing all eight songs of A Balloon Called Moaning, in order: “The Greatest Light is the Greatest Shade,” “Cradle,” “Austere,” “While the Flies,” “Whirring,” “9669,” “The Last Drop” and “Ostrich.” Although they played a few songs from 2013’s Wolf’s Law, including “Silent Treatment” and a lovely stripped-down version of “The Leopard and the Lung,” The Joy Formidable kept close to their older releases, including “I Don’t Want to See You Like This” and a stirring encore performance of “The Everchanging Spectrum of a Lie,” both from their first full-length album, The Big Roar.

For an hour and a half the band owned the stage, good-naturedly bantering back and forth in between songs, sharing anecdotes and generally “taking the piss” out of each other. (Fun fact, as shared by Bryan: Thomas was set to become a primary school music teacher before joining the band, later disclosing that, as a matter of fact, he doesn’t actually like kids all that much.)

10 years running, and the threesome are still a cohesive, tight unit — a dysfunctional family, as Bryan puts it. Although they tease and joke, it’s clear that there’s a lot of love for each other, for the music and for the pure joy of sharing it with their fans and audience.

The Joy Formidable were joined on stage by opening act Twen. Formed in the Boston DIY punk scene by lead vocalist Jane Fitzsimmons and guitarist Ian Jones, Twen has spent the better part of the last two years touring in their remodeled van, debuting their EP “Awestruck,” which dropped earlier this year.

Whatever you do, don’t let Fitzsimmons’ or Jones’ youthful appearance fool you — Twen has a fully-formed, sophisticated sound that borders on becoming a contemporary Fleetwood Mac; Fitzsimmons’ dreamy vocals are reminiscent of Stevie Nicks, and with a little more touring experience, her presence could be, too.

Not to say that Twen isn’t wholly original, because they are. Together, Fitzimmons and Jones — backed by a bassist and drummer while on tour — create a mesmerizing sound that is easy to get lost in. From punchier songs like “Damsel” that make you yearn for fond summers past to songs like “Long Time” that will help you get through those hard times on rainy days, Twen is an experience that will wrap you up in so many complementary textures and transport you to a place of their own making. (They even have a song titled “Azkaban.”) Which is not at all a bad place to be.

For more about Twen, see: www.twenband.com
Twen on Spotify: open.spotify.com/artist/7iyWvxyp2SxGg3L66TmHbO?si=wOcXZPJrRJSzPumh3N1QwQ

For more about The Joy Formidable, see: thejoyformidable.com
The Joy Formidable on Spotify: open.spotify.com/artist/4LdZNE5MHGqvc0N9ivXNF3?si=ArpnC3DxSqe6v44SDtvwNw

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