Lauren Ruth Ward turns a powerful night at the El Rey into a group effort

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Lauren Ruth Ward at the El Rey Theatre (Photo by Jessica Hanley)
Lauren Ruth Ward at the El Rey Theatre (Photo by Jessica Hanley)

Lauren Ruth Ward turned her hometown show Thursday night at the El Rey Theatre into something of an extravaganza, ripping through old songs and new, fronting a newly expanded band and making it a celebration of the L.A. scene she constantly champions.

At the start, it was almost as if Ward wasn’t the star of her own show; she was situated slightly back of center stage flanked by a choir of Emma Cole, Fox Sinclair, Rett Madison (the night’s opening act) and TwoLips. After a couple of dialed-back songs, they gave way (except for Cole, who lent her vocals the whole night), and the rock ’n’ roll show began.

The presentation was something you’d see from a psych-rock band; the stage was adorned by mushrooms with the heads painted red with white polka dots (courtesy of singer-visual artist Jess Joy of the L.A. band Moon Honey). Ward’s shakers were painted similarly. The band was backed by a trippy visuals courtesy of Liquid Courage Light Show. As frontwoman Natalie Carol of Valley Queen pointed out during their strong support set, there are few artists more supportive than Ward of her fellow musicians, and thus Thursday’s show was truly a group effort, right down to the fact that Moon Honey guitarist Andrew Martin was Ward’s guitar tech for the night.

The powerhouse vocalist has done dozens of local shows as a four-piece, but on Thursday electric violinist Annabelle Maginnis, guitarist Dean Passarella and the backup singers joined the core lineup of guitarist Eddie Rivera, bassist Liv Slingerland and drummer Madi Vogt. One other change Ward noted during the show: She’s “independent again,” having parted ways with Sony-affiliated Weekday Records, which released her full-length debut “Well Hell” back in February.

Album favorites “Did I Offend You” and “Sheet Stains” were included in the setlist, along with four new songs: “Valhalla” (which the band has been playing live and will be released in January), “Pullstring,” “We Are Grown Ups” and “Wise Gal.”

And there were the not-unexpected cameos from Ward’s partner LP, who joined the headliner for a sweet duet midway through the set and returned for the finale, a cover of “White Rabbit” during which Ward, Slingerland and LP took turns on vocals. It was LP singing lead at the finish, more than doing justice to “feed your head.”

Photos by Jessica Hanley