[ATTENDED: May 13, 2026] The Joy Formidable [rescheduled from March 8, 2026]
In early February, The Joy Formidable said that they had to postpone the East Coast part of their tour due to the expenses of touring. I honestly don’t understand how two months could have made much of a difference, but it did move from a Sunday that was quite busy to a Wednesday when I could have also gone to see Avatar (The Joy Formidable won out).
I had seen The Joy Formidable four years ago. I didn’t really know them that well, but they were always on the periphery of my interests. And wow, the blew me away live. I was really excited to see them again.
In the intervening years, their drummer decided to call it quits and Bass plater Rhydian Dafydd put out a solo album and singer/guitarist Ritzy Bryan put out music as Shy Western.
So this show was billed as an intimate evening with The Joy Formidable and it suggested that Rhydian and Shy Western would be opening or something. I arrived pretty early (minimal traffic) and was all set to get a spot near the stage. But it turned out that the show was (mostly) seated. The floor was all seats and the slightly raised section was also all seats. My ticket did not get me floor seats, which was just as well as I really enjoyed my elevated seat in the front row.
Well, it turned out that Ritzy and Rhydian were the only two on the tour. And the set was primarily Joy Formidable songs, but with one Rhydian and one Shy Western song thrown in. I assumed from this that the set might be mellow and acoustic (no drummer), but in fact, they proceeded to rock out from the start. Rhydian had a drum pedal thing so that he could tap out loud drums while playing and singing. When I saw them last time, their drummer was great, so this was a little less exciting, but the drums really added a lot to the sound. In fact, the sound was pretty big as they played The Everchanging Spectrum of a Lie. The song has a pretty powerful ending and just as they hit the last chord, the lights went out.
We were all very impressed at this unexpected high tech coordination. Until we realized that all of the power was out. Total coincidence that it was right on the beat. The room was almost entirely dark, but there were a few emergency lights on. We soon learned that the power failure was on the whole block. With no real indication of how long it would last, the two decided to play some acoustic songs. They sat on the edge of the stage and played Maw Maw Song. This song had been starting off Set 2, so they were just winging it at this point. It was quiet in the place but even without amplification, Ritzy’s voice sounded great.
I’m not sure if they asked for requests or someone asked for A Heavy Abacus, but they hadn’t been playing that at other shows, so we got a one of a kind song. Midway through the song the power cam back on. For the most part it was only small things that started powering up. The amps had powered up by this time but there was no light yet. So there was some sense of aha! when they started to play The Greatest Light Is the Greatest Shade (It didn’t make the stage lights come back though).
They played Austere in the dark (there as something really cool about this vibe, because we could see them somewhat with the ambient light) and then half way through Ostrich, the lights fully returned.
Throughout the whole thing, they were always polite and funny and the crowd I think enjoyed it all knowing we were get something unintentionally special. After a gorgeous Into the Blue (everything was normal now), they played a Welsh song Yn Rhydiau’r Afon. They had mentioned that they’d seen all of the Welsh names in the area (they didn’t even mention Bryn Mawr, which is just down the road). So it was fun to have a little discussion of Wales and the Welsh language.
Ritzy has just released her album under the name Shy Western. It came with a book called Hugger. For whatever reason (maybe the name), I thought that Shy Western would be a fairly mellow album, but I was totally wrong. I’m not sure why people make solo albums that sound similar to their band albums, but I can see how this differs from TJF songs. They ended the set with Interval and then left for a little break.
When they returned, they had a third person with them! Byron Owens (who was also selling their merch) sat behind them. They started with Little Blimp–I’m curious what Maw Maw Song would have sounded like loud now. Owens played percussion on this one–it’s amazing how much those little shakers added to the song. Then they played Cradle with Owens playing spoons!
After Cradle, they played a Rhydian Dafydd song. And so, that was how the billing played out. The two members of Joy Formidable played one song from Shy Western and one from the Rhydian Dafydd album. Make the Sign was a ripping song with noisy guitars and a driving bassline. It proved to be one of the louder songs of the night and I am totally excited to check out the rest of his album. And when they moved on to Whirring and their cover of the Kinks Strangers (A song I didn’t know) Owens played the saw! The saw solo on Whirring was amazing. Ritzy had a cough during Strangers–I was doing so well this tour.
They played a few songs that they’d played last time. (Greatest Light, Ostrich, and Whirring). But the ended the set with a Kinks cover and a terrific version of Wolf’s Law. I’m not sure why they didn’t squeeze in The Leopard and the Lung which they’d been playing at other shows, but I guess they wante dto keep the number of songs the same at each show.
Nevertheless, they promised that they’d be coming back again sooner rather than later, which I’m pretty excited about.
| 2026 |
2022 |
| Set 1 (Ritzy and Rhydian) |
The Greatest Light Is the Greatest Shade ℜ |
The Everchanging Spectrum of a Lie ℜ
(Power went out (right on the beat, it was pretty cool) as the song ended) |
I Don’t Want to See You Like This ℜ |
Maw Maw Song ϖ
(played on the edge of the stage in the dark, Ritzy on acoustic guitar and Rhydian on mandolin) |
Y Bluen Eira ∇ |
A Heavy Abacus ℜ
(played acoustically on the edge of the stage. Power came back mid song) |
Ostrich ℜ |
The Greatest Light Is the Greatest Shade ℜ
(Power to audio only–lights had not come back on yet–played electric but in the dark) |
CSTS (Come See the Show) (bonus on ⇔) |
Austere ℜ
(Played electric but in the dark) |
Into the Blue ⇔ |
Ostrich ℜ
(Lights returned mid-song) |
Cradle ℜ |
| Into the Blue ⇔ |
Sevier ⇔ |
| Yn Rhydiau’r Afon ‰ |
Silent Treatment ϖ |
Hugger ©
(Shy Western song) |
Chimes ⇔ |
| Interval ⇔ |
The Leopard and the Lung ϖ |
| Set 2 (with Byron Owens on percussion) |
encore |
| Little Blimp ϖ |
Gotta Feed My Dog ⇔ |
| Cradle ϖ |
Whirring ℜ |
Make the Sign φ
(Rhydian Dafydd song) |
|
| Whirring ℜ |
|
Strangers
(The Kinks cover) |
|
| Wolf’s Law ϖ |
|
⇔ Into the Blue (2021)
∇ AARTH (2018)
‰ Arthuthrol A split single (2016)
ϖ Wolf’s Law (2013)
ℜ The Big Roar (2011)
♠ A Balloon Called Moaning (2008)
SHY WESTERN
© Hugger (2026)
RHYDIAN DAFYDD
φ Ad.un.iad (2026)
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I hadn’t heard of Labrador before this show. Turns out they are a solid Philly rock band. Their blurb on bandcamp says Maximum Alt Country which I assumed was a joke as they don’t sound country at all. But even in the review of their new album, it says “The latest LP from Philadelphia rock quartet Labrador turns up the heat on the alt-country and mod influences forged on their previous records.” I can certainly hear the mod influences, but I don’t hear any alt country at all.
When this show was first announced it was a co-headlining tour of Fastball and Spacehog, two bands who have one album that I really like.
