Support was a solo slot from Anna B Savage

Set List

• All Now
• I Don’t Say It, But I Feel It
• Fundamental Memory
• Best Friend
• Black & White
• Satisfied
• Make It Holy
• The Echo
• Nothing’s Gonna Happen
• I’ll Never Leave You Alone
• After School
• Failure
• So Gracefully
• Great Wave
• Good Woman
• You Held It All
• In The Long Run
• Mexico
• Teeth White

Support for the evening was from East India Youth, an electronic musician who I felt he was an odd support for BSP. Although he had an interesting light show. i didn’t find him too interesting.

East India Youth

The first band up were Hey Sholay. A band from Sheffield. The band were excellent and the relatively big early crowd appreciated their energy. According to the lead singer, the band had signed their first record deal that day and it clearly fired them up leading to an enjoyable engaging set. Hopefully this won’t be the last time I see them.

Hey Sholay

Next up was ‘Kai Fish’. A google of his name after the gig revealed he is the bassist in the Mystery Jets. They’re not a band I have really listened to, so I had no preconceived ideas. What I heard was frankly awful. One of the worst support sets ever. The songs were insipid. I wasn’t even sure if the singer was trying some kind of ‘Spinal Tap’ spoof. He’d clearly modelled his appearance on ‘Trevor and Simon’ from ‘Live and Kicking’. When he put his guitar down and then started to ‘dad dance’ his way through his set, I was even more convinced that he was having a joke at our expense. But despite this, there appeared to be a section of the crowd clearly enjoying his set. Me, it left me thinking that Steve Coogan does this type of comedy so much better.

Kai Fish

After the blip, it was back to the good stuff. I think Dry the River will be big this year. I didn’t think I’d seen them before. It turned out, I’d seen them twice last year, once supporting Bombay Bicycle Club and I think I caught them at SXSW. They’re in the ‘folk indie’, maybe not as firmly as the Mumford and Sons and Noah and the Whale, as they do have heavier more mainstream indie as part of the armoury. But they are very good.

Dry The River

Tonight’s headline were the Jezabels, a band I’d really enjoyed at SXSW catching their set at the Sonicbids party and later that day catching the end of their set at the Australia party. I’ve since caught them at XOYO and Heaven. They’re a four piece indie band from Australia. I really like the lead singer, Hayley’s voice. She has a powerful voice that can soar and drive a song forward. Arguably their material isn’t that strong. But Hayley’s voice as she manically moves round the stage lifts them above the merely standard. Tonight’s set had some new material that I think needs some bedding-in, but overall the set was up to their excellent standards.

The Jezabels

The evening started poorly. The first support act suffered from some poor sound, with the vocals far too low in the mix, so low I could barely hear them. Bear Driver who followed fared a little better but the sound still was muddy. Still Bear Driver sounded reasonable.

Bear Driver

With the sound problems I was concerned that the main event might be ruined by the poor sound. Luckily things picked up when Joy took the stage.

Like at SXSW their approach appears to be to batter the sound system into submission. Their feedback laden guitar sound seemed more suited to the Koko sound system and Byran’s vocals were full of the energy she showed at SXSW.

Joy are definitely a live band. Their debut album, The Big Roar, although decent, fails to capture the energy of their live set. Which is a pity, I think this may harm their chances of becoming a stadium-size band, something their sound is more than capable of filling.

Tonight’s gig had more ‘shade’ than their SXSW gigs, with the band joined by a harpist and a small choir dressed in robes and masks. This gave some of their song an extra dimension but didn’t detract from the immediacy of their sound.

It’s hard not to enjoy The Joy Formidable. If a band seems to be enjoying the experience I think it’s hard not to enjoy a gig and tonight they appeared to be really enjoying their homecoming gig. Tonight I definitely enjoyed the evening.