Most artists could not sell out the ~1500 capacity Concord Music Hall on a Tuesday, but Will Wood is not most artists.
For the uninitiated, New Jersey based Will Wood is more cabaret performer than rock star. His vocals range from Rat Pack-esque crooner to Beetlejuice on Broadway, and the subject matters of his songs go from intense psychotic episodes to a horror movie about rats to gender crises. The man contains multitudes. He amassed a cult following starting 10 years ago, with the release of the album Everything Is A Lot under the band name Will Wood And The Tapeworms. Wood has released a few albums solo and often performs that way, but the Mr. Wood Is Dead Tour is to celebrate the ten year anniversary of playing with The Tapeworms.
The crowd was a colorful bunch, everyone dressed in their quirky and gothic finest. Some emulated Wood’s makeup era from the 2016 album Self-ish, with swirling patterns and a large cartoonish third eye, while others wore whatever the fuck they felt like, including one memorable cosplayer dressed as Hatsune Miku. Bracelets were traded, pre-show games were played, worms on strings were waved enthusiastically in the air. This was my first Will Wood show and I didn’t know what to expect, but people were as kind as they were eccentric and the vibes were overall immaculate.
The opening band for this leg, the English folk siblings Ruen Brothers, had everyone clapping their hands and joining in on their singalongs. The acoustic Americana vibes were a fun contrast for the chaos soon to come.
Will Wood took the stage, alone, adorned in round pink sunglasses and a closed third eye drawn on his forehead, and the crowd held their breath as he began with the piano ballad “Sex, Drugs, Rock ‘n’ Roll.” It’s a cheeky song, as many of Wood’s are, where he declares, “I hate sex, I hate drugs, I hate rock n’ roll, and I hate music,” setting a scene of what was to be an unconventional rock show. The titular Tapeworms joined the stage by the second song, and the party truly started. It was immediately clear that the whole devoted crowd knew every word, to every song, even the most verbose and tongue-twisty of Wood’s discography.
Wood gave a few speeches, where he assured us he wasn’t trying to be too youth-pastor-like, but any preachiness was negated by the wisdom imparted, not trying to convert anyone to any ideology, just inviting the crowd to accept themselves and each other. Before one particular song called “Skeleton Appreciation Day in Vestal, NY (Bones),” he said, “It is the things that make us spooky and scary deep down inside that are the things that make us the shape that we are, and keep us upright, and stop us from being goopy little puddles on the floor, taking on the shape of whatever contains us like a liquid does. And I think it’s important to try our best to love one another, not despite those spooky scary things, but because of them.” This was of course met by enthusiastic applause from the spooky, loving crowd.
The serious speeches shared room with silly moments, like when the entire band shot confetti cannons at Wood after he pretended to berate them on stage, or when he pretended to pass out and the guitarist Mike pantomimed reviving him with defibrillator shocks. This is clearly a band that knows how to have fun with each other, and it showed each time the members danced around or came into the crowd to shred.
The song before the encore, “White Noise,” brought tears to the eyes of everyone in the room, Wood included. The soft ukulele ballad provided a true and deeply moving moment of connection, where you could feel in the air how much the song meant to everyone. It is the closing song to the 2022 album “In case I make it,” and a beautiful way to close out the show… but he couldn’t exactly leave the crowd standing there teary-eyed. The rest of the band came back on stage for the raucous one-two punch of the encore, swinging “6up 5oh Cop-Out (Pro/Con)” followed by fan favorite “Dr. Sunshine is Dead.” They were the perfect high-energy endings to a roller coaster of a night. It was an amazing first show for me personally, and I am determined to see more of Will Wood in the near future to see what new shenanigans and insights are in store.
You can catch the madness on the July leg of the tour here. Follow his Instagram and his Patreon. And please check out the extra unique merch Wood is selling on this tour: cat adoptions! Read about how Wood and his girlfriend are currently trying to find homes for about a dozen cats and get involved here.
All photos appear courtesy of Madi Jay for Honorable Mention Magazine
