Although I’m guessing many of our readers are currently in a food coma, hopefully you’ll be back on your feet for the weekend, as Philly will be getting two of the best shows it’s seen all year. Welsh rockers The Joy Formidable will play their most intimate Philly dates ever when they headline Boot & Saddle this Saturday (11/30) and Sunday (12/1). However, they’re not the only reason to come out to at least one of the two sure-to-be-hyper-sweaty evenings. Handling support duties is Twen, Nashville-based, Boston-bred indie poppers who seem to blend the aesthetics of ‘90s dream pop with the golden age of college rock. The band has more or less been on the road since forming in 2017, but this fall their first proper release, Awestruck, dropped on Frenchkiss. At the core of Twen is vocalist Jane Fitzsimmons and guitarist Ian Jones, who recently took a little time to tell me about Twen so far…
“Writing our first song, putting out our first record, going on our first tour, all of it; it’s all been a highlight,” Ian tells me of the band’s still relatively brief history. Although, however brief their history, the band has already been through a number of changes. When I ask if there’s anything especially important to know about Twen, Jane tells me, “I like it when there’s not a preconceived notion of what it has to be, because we’ve had lots of formations and there have been a lot of different people in the band,” before Ian adds, “We try to never write the same song twice.” Jane also goes on to say, “I think people have respect for how much we tour, because it’s not just that it’s physically draining, but it’s mentally draining as well.” She also cites the band’s tourmates as some of the band’s most significant influences: “We’re influenced by a lot of the bands that we tour with because we usually know them as people before we know them as a band.” Although in terms of what to expect of this Saturday and Sunday’s shows, she tells me that they tend to go fairly differently each night.
“Our shows are really based on the feeling that we get from the audience. I mean, you can’t try to slap on an energy that isn’t there. We have a lot of different kinds of shows. It’s all about whatever the crowd’s feeling.”
