“Psychedelic” and “folk” are words often associated with New York band Woods, who have consistently released critically well-received albums over the past decade. In support of the band’s ninth album, City Sun Eater in the River of Light, which debuted on the Billboard Heatseeker chart at No. 15, the band performed a 13-song set at the Echoplex in Los Angeles on Saturday night.
The DIY band — which runs its own Woodsist label and had just performed at its annual Woodsist Festival — sounded excellent, giving Echo Park fans a taste of the new music in a live setting. For City Sun Eater in the River of Light, the band experimented with reggae and African jazz, of which singer Jeremy Earl has noted the Éthiopiques compilations as a major influence. These notes were best on display during such new tracks as “Sun City Creeps,” which concludes with a lively jam session.
The addition of keyboardist and saxophone player Kyle Forester contributed to a fuller sound, such as on the jazz-inspired “The Take.” The most talkative of the bandmembers, Forester noted the moment when Earl’s acoustic guitar went awry during the concert, explaining: “There’s a background [story] to it, which is that the other day we filmed a music video…. The inside of Jeremy’s acoustic guitar got loosened, which should make you excited to see the music video now. ‘What kind of crazy shenanigans did they get up to that loosened the solder?’” The show went on with the aid of opener Cian Nugent, who lent Earl his guitar.
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The Echoplex stage was decorated with a backdrop featuring a kaleidoscope light pattern, of which Forester remarked, “Do you have to pass some threshold of psychedelia [to have that screen]?” There must be some regular-ass shows here, where they’re like, ‘What’s with your weird stuff?’” At one point, toward the end of the show, Forester and Earl waved their arms in the air to watch their shadows against the kaleidoscope light pattern.
Woods pleased fans by returning to the stage for a three-song encore — somewhat of a rarity for the band. While the set list had mainly focused on the new album, for the encore, the band went back to 2010’s At Echo Lake with “Suffering Season” and then “Moving to the Left” from 2014’s With Light and With Love. As the crowd got ready to leave, guitarist Jarvis Taveniere said, “We’ll play one more,” the band members clearly enjoying themselves. The show ended with a cover of Graham Nash’s “Military Madness,” a track from the band’s 2009 album Songs of Shame. It was a rousing conclusion to a solidly entertaining show.