Harmony Woods | photo by John Vettese for WXPN
Tonight’s Concert Pick: Harmony Woods at The Pharmacy
Things have changed a lot for Sofia Verbilla of Harmony Woods over the past six months. For starters, hair has gone from sky blue to bright red — though in either case, she’s relatively easy to spot in the crowd at a show. More important than the visual changes, however, are the sonics. Verbilla started the project last as a place to collect her contemplative acoustic songwriting — a mix of spacious guitar leads and her captivating vocals, which shake with equal parts emotion and confidence. Her early gigs were played in this unadorned fashion, either solo acoustic or solo electric, but as she performed more, she began to assemble a live band, which totally shined last month when it played the Punk Talks benefit gig at Everybody Hits.
Key influences can be picked up through the cover songs in her setlist (Mitski’s “I Don’t Smoke,” Julien Baker’s “Go Home”), and her originals are just as resonant. Tonight, Harmony Woods’ first-ever headlining gig comes to The Pharmacy in South Philly. Joining Verbilla is Santi Suede, So Totally and Nobody’s Baby; more information on the all-ages show can be found at its Facebook event page. Verbilla just got done recording the first Harmony Woods full-length, which will be released a little later on this year — so keep your eyes and ears peeled for that. In the meantime, check out this acoustic performance of “Vignette #1 / The Best Things” from last summer.