Fri. March 30

Big noise in a tiny package.That’s the quick-hit take on singer-guitarist Ritzy Bryan and the Joy Formidable, the Wales-formed, London-based trio she fronts. The group nearly sold out Brighton Music Hall last year, returned to the Garden to open for the Foo Fighters and is back in our midst Friday March 30 at the Paradise. Their album was in my 2011 Top Ten, as submitted to the Village Voice Pazz & Jop Poll.

The following is drawn from a Herald review I wrote.

The band’s name? It’s not ironic. Sure, at the nearly soldout Brighton Music Hall Tuesday, there was sonic turmoil and some gnarly sounds, but the pleasure principle was stoked throughout the 65-minute set. It wasn’t confectious pop, by any means. No one will confuse Bryan with the many chirpy, dance-pop Brit gals hitting our shores these days. She was certainly effervescent, bantering with the crowd and her band mates, chatting up the charity for the homeless the band supports. But the Joy Formidable gets inspiration from the shoegazer bands of the early-‘90s such as Slowdive, Ride, Lush and Swervedriver. That means the sound is something of a melodic cacophony, with the singer not concerned with conveying a specific message. Bryan, bassist-singer Rhydian Dafyd and  

Bryan – a pert, diminutive blonde in a naughty schoolmarm dress - and Dafydd often jerked about the stage as if struck by lightning. You got the sense that Thomas, a hyperactive basher, would have done the same had he not been rooted to his kit. There was a visual, kinetic component to this concert, accelerated when Bryan began whacking Thomas’ cymbal in "Buoy" like a determined dominatrix.

The concert began with the minimalist, seven-minute "The Everchanging Spectrum of a Lie," which built from a whisper and a drum pulse to a full-throttle scream. (That lie concerns love, if you were wondering.) It set the stage for a set where you might not have understood the singer’s lyrics, but you couldn’t miss the sweet snarl of her guitar. In songs like "Austere," "A Heavy Abacus" and "I Don’t Want to See You Like This," Bryan played massed chords that built to multiple crescendos.

The Joy Formidable released its debut EP, "A Balloon Called Moaning" last year and recently released its first full-length effort, "The Big Roar." (Again, no irony in titles.) They played nine of the new disc’s 10 tracks – four are revisions of "Moaning" songs - and two from the EP, "9669" and "Greyhounds in the Slips."

The peak came at the close of the regular set, with the delicate-into-chaotic "9669" and the blissful My Bloody Valentine-like blitz of "Whirring."

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