Matador Recording artists, the Chicago quartet, Water From Your Eyes, brought their “Beautiful Place” tour to the Old Rock House on a Sunday night, creating a new musical paradigm for a tuned-in crowd of indie rock tastemakers. It will be a show that thousands will claim to have attended, but for the 100 or so who were actually there, they know they witnessed something groundbreaking and important.
Describing the music of this quartet is incredibly challenging, even if one can spot the influences and source materials. The Water From Your Eyes concert experience left my mind reeling with a multitude of adjectives — dizzying, disorienting, explosive, chaotic, danceable, droning, polyrhythmic, complex, mesmerizing, revolutionary, mathematical, chemical, and pure genius. In short, monumental and riveting. I can’t explain, but I know it was special.
Some musical reference points or touchpoints include Eno, Sonic Youth, New Order, Lush, King Crimson, Throwing Muses, Captain Beefheart, Zappa, P.I.L., and possibly elements of The Aphex Twins. Even those comparisons still only come remotely close to describing their punk, performance art, spoken word, dub, techno, math rock, and warped new wave approach. With most bands, combining that many genres would yield a jumbled, incoherent, impotent sound, but in the hands of this group of artists, it combines to create a musical canvas and masterpiece of sound.
The permanent band or duo consists of shamanic vocalist and shapeshifter Rachel Brown and guitarist and producer Nate Brown, also known as This is Lorelei, who recently released their seventh full-length album, It’s A Beautiful Place. They are joined on this tour by a drummer, Bailey Wollowitz, and their touring bassist, Al Nardo, a constant moving force.
Their devastating, jaw-dropping set included a Krafterwerk-inspired mechanical, almost robotic live rendition of “Barley,” the psychedelic, almost Weenish jammy guitar intro of the title track, “It’s a Beautiful Place,” the techno, belly-shaking looped madness of “For Mankind,” which sounded like a space invasion.
The crowd not only responded to each song with loud applause and cheers, but many fans also performed their own interpretative dances, some of which resembled ancient, erratic movements from The St. Vitus Dance. The fans mirrored the music, converted that energy, and sent it right back to this collection of talented musicians and avant-garde artists.
Sporting white “bug” shades, baggy pants, and a cool personalized T, Rachel Brown seemed almost detached from the crowd at times and hung towards the back of the stage, and did stretches or touched her toes. Even with those “ordinary” gestures, she commanded the audience’s attention. There are singers, and then there are stars. She’s the latter.
Bassist Al Nardo was a flurry of kicks, playing the bass with abandon, and dancing in her cute white boots. I believe she burned more calories in the hour-long concert than most burn in a week.
Drummer Bailey Wollowitz was a master of precision, pummeling his kit like an octopus while seamlessly and effortlessly laying down odd-meter time signatures. Guitarist Nate Brown was a master of pure focus and a brush player. He colored each song with fiery, Fripp-like squawks and masterful guitar solos and flourishes. Instead of being some shredder, he was an artful colorist and clinician.
Water From Your Eyes finished their roughly 14-song set and walked off to applause and made a beeline for the merch table to meet fans and collect some well-deserved dollars. Some seemed stunned by what they had just witnessed, but grateful that there are still bands that can blow your mind and freeze time and place.
