“It’s a Beautiful Place”: Water From Your Eyes, Dutch Interior,  Marbled Eye at SF’s Independent


On Oct. 29, Brooklyn-based band Water From Your Eyes took the stage at one of San Francisco’s most intimate venues, The Independent. It was the group’s first time back since opening for Melody’s Echo Chamber in 2023, and the city greeted them with the warm welcome of a sold-out show.

Perhaps I’ve just been going to too many concerts frequented by the under-18 crowd, but the turnout for Water From Your Eyes was refreshing; the sight of a balding man with reading glasses on and a millennial couple that could’ve easily costarred in BuzzFeed videos circa 2012 called to my heart.

Walking in, fans were greeted by the post-punk thrash of Oakland band Marbled Eye, the first of two openers. Formed by two Bay Area natives, the four-member group never lost the crowd’s attention. Sure, the crowd was still sparse at that point, but the stragglers who were there, myself included, seemed to be having the time of their lives: We thrashed, we hopped, we hummed along.



At 9 p.m., the second opener came on. You would imagine a sense of irony inherent to the nature of Dutch Interior, an alt-country six-part group from the notoriously un-country Long Beach, California; I was instead met with an overwhelming sense of sincerity. Who’s to say that a group of the most stereotypically Southern Californian men couldn’t get a little Americana with it? No one at the Independent that night, that’s for sure. Dutch Interior’s entire set was marked by drunken whoops and the swaying of friends with their arms around one another.



What was unique about this show was just how, for lack of a better word, chill it was. At bigger venues, it’s easy to get sucked into the feeling that you’re just another fish in the sea, another adoring fan arriving to see people you can only perceive via the album covers that pop up on your phone when you listen to them on Spotify. But at The Independent, it’s as if all lionizing goes out the window. Rachel Brown, lead singer of Water From Your Eyes, was playing on her phone right next to me while I picked up my tickets from the box office. The entire gaggle of Dutch Interior members were smoking cigarettes against the wall after the show, interspersed with audience members who needed a smoke break too. Throughout the headlining set, members of Marbled Eye were scattered throughout the audience with beers in hand. There was no sense of musician-only, VIP exclusivity — we really were all there for the music.

Water From Your Eyes came on a little past 10 p.m. Rounded out by Nate Amos, Brown, Al Nardo and Bailey Wollowitz, the group came on quietly and unpretentiously. They almost seemed shy at first, setting up their instruments with a practiced avoidance of eye contact with the crowd.

Any sense of awkwardness went out the window as soon as their set actually began. After Brown gave a brief shoutout to the joy they feel buying Smiskis off of Facebook Marketplace, the band opened with “Born 2.” Each member of the band seemed to operate within their own bubble, but with an undeniable sense of cohesion. Amos, on guitar, deserves a special shoutout — there were times when I couldn’t tear my eyes away from how he played, his fingers flying across the guitar strings and his foot stepping on the effects pedals without breaking a sweat. Brown commanded the stage, dancing across it as they sang. Nardo and Wollowitz, who only tour with the band, deserve their flowers too with how full they made each track sound.

The tiny venue smelled of pineapple vape smoke and beer breath all night, but that’s a worthy trade-off for a night of incredible live music. I started the night wary of the amount of “Safe Sleazy” mustaches in the crowd, prepared to be shouted at and nudged past, but I ended it with a renewed love of concerts. It’s rare for anyone to enjoy the openers as much as the headliner — but Marbled Eye, Dutch Interior and Water From Your Eyes managed the impossible.



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