Woods @ Baby's All Right (April 22, 2014)

On Tuesday night Woods headlined a impressive bill featuring supporting slots from The Woolen Men, Weyes Blood, and Cassie Ramone. The show took place at Baby’s All Right in Brooklyn all as a part of Red Bull’s Sound Select series that Brooklynvegan curated.

Cassie Ramone (formerly) of Vivian Girls played an acoustic solo set where she asked the crowd to sit down during her performance. It was just her and her guitar, sharing a set of personal songs, aside from her cover of Beach Boys’ “Do You Wanna Dance.”

Up next was Weyes Blood, which is the project of Brooklyn resident Natalie Nering. She sings over various cassette tapes that she lets play behind her, giving her set a lost dreamy effect that is often haunting, but mainly quite beautiful. Hearing her voice over the hiss of the tape deck is almost this solitary experience that can be both devastatingly sad and also oddly uplifting. You get all kinds of emotions watching her play, which says a lot. Her set also included a great interpretation of Harry Nilsson’s “Everybody’s Talkin.” Keep an eye out for her.

The Woolen Men are from Portland, Oregon and brought all kinds of goodness with them. They jammed out in a garage-rock fashion that moved and grooved persistently, and with ease. Every song was as good as the next, with jangly guitars and plenty of hooks to bring it all home. During the tail-end of their set they switched instruments and I actually found that band dynamic to be just as good, if not better.

After many years of always missing Woods NYC showings, I finally got to see them. I’m glad to rely that they didn’t disappoint. Their new album With Light And With Love was just released last week, and as expected, the set was mainly taken from the new album. The epic self-titled track was a standout for me, as the band was able to showcase their full abilities the the freak-out folk jam that truly stayed true to the word jam.

Woods indulge in these extended jam a bit more than you’d expect, but in the best way possible. They bring forward the rock elements that often lay in the back during their folkier tunes, but during the live show they crank things up a bit. This results in a exciting psych-folk display that has the ability to take over a room in ways that I didn’t even anticipate. There’s a timelessness about their songs that shines through on stage where you feel like you’re being transported through various time periods.

I’ll be honest, I didn’t expect Woods to rock out as much as they did, a very pleasant surprise that will definitely have me coming out for more at some other point. It’s also worth noting that during the encore Real Estate’s bassist Alex Bleeker suddenly appeared next to me, rocking out just like another fan. It was pretty cool, to say the least.

Find photos of all four bands sets below.

Woods: