Live Review | Water From Your Eyes @ Strange Brew, Bristol

George Ward

Freelance journalist and online editor for CLUNK. Can be found out and about in Bristol, finding cheap records or having a pint on King Street.

Water From Your Eyes somehow perfectly translate the chaos of their recorded sound to the stage at Bristol’s Strange Brew

Earlier this year, Water From Your Eyes dropped ‘It’s a Beautiful Place,’ their 7th album, and yet another reason for you to check out one of the most unique and playful bands from the experimental rock scene. Their sound is ever-shifting, and we were fascinated to catch them for the first time live, to see just how they brought their complex rhythms, gnarly riffs and fascinating structures to life at Strange Brew.

As soon as the band took to the stage, you could tell this was gonna be a special one. The band, made up of duo Rachel Brown and Nate Amos, as well as touring members Al Nardo and Bailey Wollowitz (Fantasy Of A Broken Heart) looked right at home in Bristol; you could say the sunglass-wearing vocalist Brown looked too cool for themselves, but watch them play for one track and you realise that they are plenty talented enough to look as cool as they damn well please.

The new tracks completely came to life live; the lead riff on ‘Born 2′ sounded fuzzy and huge, the driving bass on ‘Life Signs’ propulsive and sinister. This is so clearly a band entirely locked in with one another, and as chaotic and complex their jams would become, they never once lost their tightness.

Hearing slightly older tracks was a real treat too, especially those from 2023’s ‘Everyone’s Crushed,’ a personal favourite. ‘Barley,’ with its deadpan vocals, glitchy piano samples and impossible to predict form was a massive highlight, sounding like a deranged creature being pieced together right in front of us, learning to walk at such a rapid pace that it overtakes itself, each part messily falling over each other in a glorious scramble of limbs.

Another highlight came from ‘True Life,’ an equally chaotic track. Again, it is the juxtaposition of Brown’s unbothered vocals and the ferocity of the guitars and drums that give this band their flare and, unlike others like Dry Cleaning, the instrumentals are unhinged enough to keep this contrast interesting throughout an entire set. This track is another monster, with its surf-rock bassline overlaid with jabby, nasty guitar stabs and relentless drums.

The fact that Water From Your Eyes can jump from such experimental moments as these to a hit like ‘Playing Classics’ is why we love them so much. The track sounded so fresh and whimsical at the end of the set, causing even the most self-serious fans to have a little boogie. Insanely catchy, bouncy and so much fun, this one would feel just as home in a disco DJ set as it would in an indie rock set.

If Water From Your Eyes keep their sound as unexpected and impossible to pin down as this set demonstrated, we can’t wait to keep following them; whatever twisted, kaleidoscopic direction they might take us next.