Last night I caught No Joy at Baby’s All Right. It was a steamy evening, and I headed to South Williamsburg after getting caught in a monsoon in Bushwick. The rain didn’t help the heat, though, so upon entering the back room of Baby’s, I felt sticky and so did the atmosphere in the relatively small space.
That atmosphere, however, added to the beautiful din that No Joy brought to the stage. If you’ve heard their new record More Faithful — and are familiar with the loud shoegaze grunge that was 2013’s Wait to Pleasure (one of my favorite records of that year) — you know that it has an abundance of lighter, more ethereal moments than its predecessor. If you haven’t heard either of them, get on it here and here. Jazamine White-Gluz’s vocals also tend to be more in the forefront on Faithful, whereas on their other albums and EPs, they are obscured in reverb and haze. I admit it took some getting used to, but it’s grown on me, and what really sealed the deal was hearing the new tracks live.
They went back and forth between tracks from Faithful and Pleasure at Baby’s. Their set was sadly brief (about 35 minutes) but still sounded really great. The three guitars were loud and dissonant, but the layering of their sounds made the overall effect rather dreamy. The smoke machines and warm, neon-pastel (and pass out) lighting aided this.
And No Joy will be back sooner than we thought: they’ve have added an afternoon show at Rough Trade this Saturday for exactly zero dollars (!). PLUS if you’re one of the first 10 to show up, you’ll get the cassette version of More Faithful for free too. Otherwise, grab it at Rough Trade while you’re there (how convenient) or right here.
Side note – I missed openers ADVAETA (who I enjoy but couldn’t get there in time for – listen) and EZTV (who remind me slightly of Orange Juice –listen), but encourage you to check them both out at their next shows. ADVAETA plays Silent Barn with Krill on the 4th of July if you’re in town, and new venue Aviv on the 9th. For EZTV, next up happens to be their record release party at Union Pool on July 23rd, with support from Nude Beach and Mercury Girls. Tickets for that can be found here.
Here are a couple pictures grabbed during No Joy’s set ((no?) apologies for the U2 joke):
