The Joy Formidable @ St. Stephen's

Well, in an effort to play catch up (I've shot quite a few shows lately), here is next installment.

     The Joy Formidable, for those that don't know, is a 3 piece from Wales that has a tendency to  destroy the audience. An absolute powerhouse of a band that leaves it on the stage. I first saw them opening for Social Distortion, on the Foo Fighters last tour. My friend Gordon tipped me off about them, telling me "make sure you get there in time to see the opening act". Ok, well, he was spot on. I've never seen an opening act and an arena show (Verizon center -worst concert venue I ever been to) just kill it.
    So I got wind that they were playing an alt venue tour this past fall, and that DC *might* be a stop.
    Might became reality, and I was in. Ticket and photo pass secured, I went in, pretty psyched. As I mentioned in my last post, I don't photograph larger bands very often, and usually under pretty heavy restrictions. My only restriction this time was by their tour manager who asked me to "not get on the stage". Ok.
    A few things worth mentioning here: This was a benefit show for St. Stephen's church, which is pretty cool of the band. St. Stephen's is known to many a harDCore kid as a cool DIY venue to host shows. What many don't know, is that St. Stephen's is also the home of Positive Force DC , Words Beats & Life, We Are Family and many other non profit organizations that help out the less fortunate. This is all on top of their own community work. They have often forgone needs at the church to help others. This has started to catch up with them, and they need capital to help rehab their building, and make some needed improvements. This show was a step in that effort. Now, I'm not really a church kinda guy, but this is a group that has helped a lot of people, and been a willing home to the local music scene (harDCore and otherwise) for a long time. I appreciate what they do, and I want to see it keep going.
     Also, the lighting for the show was not really very good. Taking photos tough. The light was REALLY bright on the bass player and drummer, but the guitarist/vocalist/frontwoman was left almost in the dark. I would have killed for a spotlight. Ah well.
     On the plus side, the usually mediocre sound at St. Stephen's was very good. Whoever their sound guy was figured out that room like no one else ever has.
      Anyway, here are my pics. Lighting issues be damned.

pete