[Photos courtesy of Anthony Cuellar at TLC Blog]
Someone forgot to tell The Joy Formidable (that’s for-MID-able for those of us in the U.S.) that they aren’t playing in stadiums just yet. We have raved about them repeatedly on NYCTaper, and if you read this site, the facts are well-known to you. By which, I mean that the band delivers a set that is beautifully cacophonous, filling every inch of whatever space they are in, making their music larger than they are. They bring a pop sensibility to a dense, wall-of-sound style that sounds like My Bloody Valentine had a baby with Annie Lennox (or something like that). As bands these days go, TJF give off that ‘pre-rockstar’ vibe a bit more than most; the sense that while not many are seeing them now, many more will, soon enough. This Welsh band (now by way of London) arrived in the U.S. back in January as an unknown quantity. In the space of four months, they have played the hell out of NYC and elsewhere, with the crowds becoming larger and larger as they’ve continued. This Mercury Lounge show was an unplanned coda to their latest U.S. jaunt, and a resplendent one. Industry honchos and increasingly fervent fans packed Mercury despite the early set time (9pm), and the band delivered what we have now come to expect, a short, tight, dramatic set that covered most of the landscape of their newly released EP, A Balloon Called Moaning as well as some additional songs, including the new (to me, at least) “Anemone”. This show ended, and enough had been said: They have proven what they came here to prove.
But if you read this site, you don’t need convincing. This is a document of the last time anyone will see this band in a venue as small as Mercury Lounge for quite awhile (or so I predict). As with our other recordings, I recorded this set with a combination of the soundboard feed and mics. A word of listener advice – if you are playing this back on a more modest system (say, a car stereo or inexpensive earbuds), you will likely want to turn the bass down a bit for maximum enjoyment. Our rig captured the wall of sound perfectly, but the house mix was not timid in any way. Enjoy!
Direct download of MP3 files [HERE]
Download the Complete show in FLAC [HERE].
The Joy Formidable
2010-05-10
Mercury Lounge
New York, NY USA
An acidjack master recording
Recorded and produced by acidjack for nyctaper.com
Equipment: Soundboard+DPA 4021>Edirol R-44 (Oade Concert Mod)
Position: Clamp to right of soundboard cage, about 9.5? up
Mastering: 2×24bit/44.1kHz WAV files>Audacity (mixdown, set fades, EQ, tracking, amplify channels, downsample to 16bit)>FLAC ( level 8 )
Tracks: [Total Time: 44:00:00]
01 The Greatest Light Is the Greatest Shade
02 Cradle
03 The Last Drop
04 Austere
05 Ostrich
06 Greyhounds In The Slips
07 banter
08 Anemone
09 intro/banter
10 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 EP A Balloon Called Moaning from the Black Bell Records website [here] or from the store at the TJF website [here].
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