The Lonely Forest and The Joy Formidable

One of our recent favorite bands, the Lonely Forest, made a stop in Albuquerque on their tour this past spring with the Joy Formidable. The two rocked a good size showing at the Launchpad at a 21+ show on April 20th. It was our first chance getting to see both bands, and both made a great live impression.

The Lonely Forest are a unique dynamic rock outfit. They sound like a blend of REM and Brand New as the lead singer at different times can sound like Michael Stipe or Jesse Lacey. We love their ability to combine pop riffs and lyrics with attention-getting breakdowns and just being incredibly catchy. This translated well to a live audience, even those who likely had no previous experience with the Lonely Forest. It was a laid back, ear-pleasing evening featuring the Lonely Forest's highest points from the new album, Arrows. Notable moments of the night included John Van Deusen's vocal talents on Coyote, the newest single “We Sing In Time”, and the song that introduced Stop Their Frequency to the Lonely Forest, “I Don't Want to Live There”. Basically, everything we had anticipated and more.

Up next came a Welsh surprise to Stop Their Frequency. The Joy Formidable surprised us with their great stage presence and unique stage setup. The Welsh trio sports a great guitar sound, and made us want to get up and move around. Sure, we thought we knew what we were looking forward to, having done our research and being familiar with Rout's dubstep remix of their single “Austere”. Not only was “Austere” as good as we thought, the band surprised us with their fun sound and show as a whole. We left looking forward to hearing even more from the Joy Formidable in the future.

So, if you missed the show here in Albuquerque or missed the Lonely Forest and the Joy Formidable on the Spring tour elsewhere, look them both up soon. You won't regret it.