Woods and Avey Tare made a stop at Lincoln Hall in Chicago on Monday as part of their spring tour together. The show brought a packed house that rode the high of the solar eclipse earlier in the day, brimming with joy and excitement.

Originally from Baltimore, Avey Tare is a singer-songwriter known for being a member of seminal experimental pop act Animal Collective, plus he’s had several other collaborative projects including Terrestrial Tones with Eric Copeland (of Black Dice), Pullhair Rubeye with Kria Brekken (of Mum) and Avey Tare’s Slasher Flicks with Angel Deradoorian (of Dirty Projectors) and Jeremy Hyman (of Ponytail). Tare’s solo career began with “Down There” in 2010, followed by “Eucalpytus” in 2017, “Cows on Hourglass Pond” in 2019 and most recently “7s” in 2023. His nature-oriented approach to psychedelic folk is an exceptional conduit for his vehemently personal yet colorfully poetic songwriting, uniquely juxtaposing a sorrowful lament with optimistic yearn.

Avey Tare’s set on Monday entailed a grab-bag of tunes across his solo discography including two off “Cows on Hourglass Pond” (“HORS_” and “Taken Boy”), one from “Down There” (“Oliver Twist”) and one from “7s” (“The Musical”). Tare also performed three unreleased songs, plus he enthralled longtime Animal Collective fans with an newly-electrified version of “La Rapet” from Animal Collective’s debut album “Spirit They’re Gone, Spirit They’ve Vanished.” Vibrant, whimsical visuals created by Tare’s sister Abby Portner accompanied his set, contrasting warm and cool colors in a way that resonated with the intoxicatingly bittersweet themes of Tare’s music. With his signature trade-offs of hums and yelps, garbled sampling and electroacoustic amplification, Avey Tare delivered an explosively idiosyncratic performance on Monday that felt like a gathering of old friends.

Woods consists of founding members Jeremy Earl and Jarvis Taveniere along with recently-joined bassist Matt O’Keefe, drummer Ryan Jewell and keyboardist-saxophonist Kyle Forester. Formed in 2004, the Brooklyn band’s style sits at the crossroads of folk rock and neo-psychedelia (“freak folk”) with warm, arcadian lyricism and gently layered, textural melodies driven by Earl’s distinct, musing falsetto. Woods have released 11 studio albums, their most recent being “Perennial” of last year. Earl runs the label Woodsist, which has put out all of the band’s music in addition to many other great bands like Osees and Real Estate.

Monday’s set from Woods comprised heavily of “Perennial” material while also making room for tunes off previous records like “Strange to Explain” (“Where Do You Go When You Dream?”), “City Sun Eater and the River of Light” (“Sun City Creeps”) and “With Light and With Love” (the title track, which they opened with). For their encore they played one of their most popular songs, “Moving to the Left” from “With Light and With Love.” Humorous banter between songs involved Woods’ affinity for their wah-wah pedal as well as their recollections of looking up at the eclipse earlier in the day and not being able to see anything now. They seem like really sweet, genuine dudes; from the way O’Keefe plays while bouncing with utmost animation to how Jewell had an affable grin on his face for pretty much their entire set, you can tell that Woods earnestly immerse themselves into every layer of each song they play.

After driving through rural Illinois on account of the eclipse all day, then making it to the show just in time, seeing two of my favorite artists Monday evening was the cherry on top of a damn near perfect day.