The Joy Formidable (Photo by Steve Reynolds)
The Joy Formidable celebrates the 10th anniversary of the band’s debut EP, A Balloon Called Moaning, at Rock and Roll Hotel on Friday, Nov. 29, with The Ten Years Floating Tour.
Earlier this year, The Joy Formidable released a new double-album version of A Balloon Called Moaning via Hassle Records, combining their 2009 EP with a newly recorded acoustic Welsh language version, Y Falŵn Drom.
Written and recorded in a bedroom over a decade ago by lead singer and guitarist Ritzy Bryan and bass player and vocalist Rhydian Davies in North Wales, A Balloon Called Moaning was an instant hit. Rated 8/10 by NME, it was the first of the band’s releases to feature their now iconic single “Whirring” — a track that was named amongst Pitchfork’s Top 100 Tracks of The Year and described as “the song of the year” by Foo Fighters’ Dave Grohl.
Stream A Balloon Called Moaning, 10th Anniversary Edition, by The Joy Formidable on Spotify:
In the passing decade, as the world tours, festival main stages and stadium shows have racked up, it has always been especially important to the band that they continue to recognise and highlight the importance of their Welsh heritage. In this new anniversary edition, each song from the original release is re-worked acoustically and presented again in the Welsh language.
On the new release, Ritzy explained, “We’ve been through such a lot as a band over the years, it’s been a really reflective studio session, returning to the old recordings and transforming them into these beautiful stripped back, intimate versions. It’s exciting hearing them in the Welsh language because now they have new life too and can be a celebration of language as well as memory.”
The Joy Formidable
w/ Twen, Bryde
Rock and Roll Hotel
Friday, Nov. 29
Doors @ 7:30pm
$25
All ages