Concert Reviews

Review & Setlist: Jamila Woods gets her flowers at the Sinclair

Woods, who attended Brown University, called Boston a "very special place."

Jamila Woods. Courtesy Photo / Bradley Murray

By Juliana George

3 minutes to read

R&B singer Jamila Woods performed the first sold-out show on her “Water Made Us” tour at The Sinclair in Cambridge Tuesday night, and her appreciation was on full display as she swayed fluidly to the music and encouraged concertgoers to sing and dance along with her.

Just like her recent album, the set was interspersed with recordings of Woods reading diary entries aloud, making the small venue feel even more intimate. 

Woods, who attended Brown University, called Boston a “very special place” that she spent much of college visiting, prompting a loud cheer from the audience. 

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“Y’all are amazing, Boston. I love your energy, thank you so much,” she said. 

Woods wasn’t the only one with a connection to the city. The night began with a relaxed acoustic set from Nigerian-American singer-songwriter Uwade, who bantered comfortably with the crowd and recalled her “very fond memories of Cambridge” from her high school debate competition years. Whoops filled the venue whenever Uwade’s quietly powerful vocals reached a crescendo, and while listeners didn’t know the words to her originals, they enthusiastically joined in when she covered Mitski’s “Your Best American Girl,” which Uwade called the “immigrant girl anthem.” 

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Woods took to the stage with one of her introspective monologues playing in the background and started off her set with “Bugs,” the first track of “Water Made Us,” when she reached the flower-laden mic stand. She continued to perform the album track for track for the next several songs, only shifting gears after the melancholic breakup tune “Wreckage Room” brought the room’s mood down. 

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As if anticipating the song’s effect, Woods then launched into a vigorous, keyed-up rendition of her older song “BASQUIAT,” a tribute to iconic artist Jean-Michel Basquiat that comments on the over-policing of Black Americans. Each time Woods sang the chorus lyric “You can’t police my joy,” the stage lights flashed blue and red to mimic a squad car, and by the end of the song, everyone in the room knew the words.

Woods diverged even more from the steady, R&B sound of “Water Made Us” when she performed a playful cover of Paramore’s pop punk hit “That’s What You Get,” and the audience was eager to channel all their 2000s nostalgia into shouting along. She followed the cover with a live reading of her poem “I Miss All My Exes,” accompanied by ethereal instrumentals and vocalizations.

Before the penultimate song of the night, Woods wished the audience a happy Black History Month and told the story of Harriet Tubman’s vision of freedom for all enslaved people. Woods has been a vocal community organizer and activist in the past, and tonight was no different — she compared the faith that Tubman had in emancipation to the belief she has in Palestinian liberation. 

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“That story makes me think of Palestine,” she said. “As a Black feminist, I know that we are not free until we’re all free.” 

The audience, several of whom were wearing keffiyehs in solidarity with Palestine, hollered their approval, and Woods closed her set out with the final two tracks of the album, “Good News” and “Headfirst.” After almost two minutes of nonstop shrieking and applause, she returned to the stage, all smiles, and played her popular Toni Morrison-inspired hit “SULA (Paperback).” 

Setlist for Jamila Woods at The Sinclair on Feb. 20, 2024

  • Bugs
  • Tiny Garden
  • Practice
  • let the cards fall
  • Send a Dove
  • Wreckage Room
  • BASQUIAT
  • Thermostat
  • Boomerang
  • Backburner
  • out of the doldrums
  • Wolfsheep
  • Still
  • That’s What You Get (cover)
  • I Miss All My Exes
  • Breadcrumbs
  • Holy 
  • Good News
  • Headfirst 

Encore:

  • SULA (Paperback)

A clip of Jamila Woods live in Washington D.C. last week:

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