Artist: No Joy
When: October 1st, 2025
Where: The 27 Club, Ottawa
Context: No Joy is an act that I’ve been waiting to see for well over a decade. Indeed, I had planned to see them in 2015 when they were touring in support of their third album, “More faithful”, and they were hitting a now-defunct local spot that was even more intimate than Wednesday night’s venue*. I purchased the ticket for this latest show back in August, right after I realized that the Oasis show I was supposed to see was not in the cards, that disappointment making me even more determined to not miss No Joy a second time. When I first heard of them, they were a full band but nowadays, the project is mostly the work of Jasamine White-Gluz. For the tour, she has brought Tara McLeod and Liam O’Neill along to bring even more noise. And man, was it loud**. It was a sound that was palpable and filled with texture. Jasamine and Tara shredding away (and I mean SHREDDING) at their guitars and Liam hammering away at the drums. It was a relatively short set and ended early, which suited these aging bones just fine, but it was a fine selection of tunes and included many of my favourites from “Wait to pleasure”, “Motherhood”, and the new one, “Bugland”. I went home buzzing and quite satisfied.
Point of reference song: “Bugland”
*Why I missed that show is too embarrassing to recount.
**I was very glad for my earplugs.
My (life in) music lists 