DUTCH INTERIOR + GLASSHOUSE RED SPIDER MITE – GREEN DOOR STORE, BRIGHTON 7.9.25
It’s a very rare instance for me when reviewing a show, where I make absolutely no notes, research or listening plan for a band prior to attending; with pretty much every single gig I’ve attended, some form of research is made, no matter how big or small. However, 28 months and 81 reviews later, I went into the Green Door Store on Sunday night in total blindness to Los Angeles indie outfit Dutch Interior.
A six-piece consisting of lifelong friendships, these guys have been palling around in the music scene for the best part of the decade, infusing a concoction of Americana, indie country, slowcore and post-rock into a sound that proves to be very difficult to pin down to one nugget of influence. With the incremental successes of their first two albums, ‘Kindergarten’ in 2021, and ‘Blinded By Fame’ two years later, the band hit the trifecta, solidifying their audience with the album ‘Moneyball’, released on Fat Possum earlier this year. With various transitions of instruments and lead vocal duties split between almost all of the band members, it’s surprising that a band of Dutch Interior’s calibre hasn’t blown up towards the critical heights the likes of Wilco, Lambchop and Broken Social Scene have done across the years.
Now, despite my lack of prior knowledge about Dutch Interior, the opening act for their Brighton show comes in the form of a band that I have wanted to see live for a long time… Glasshouse Red Spider Mite! Kicking around for a good number of years at this point, vocalists and guitarists Alex J.M. Turner and Ethan Barton, alongside drummer Benji Reeves and guitarist Antony Panayi have been widely celebrated in Brighton’s music scene for their slowcore sound, with previous singles ‘Erstwhile’ and ‘Thorns In My Mouth’ cementing their status. It was only with the release of their debut EP ‘What Do You Mean The Monster… Hahaha’ in the tail end of May where I finally caught up on the Glasshouse Red Spider Mite affections, falling in love with their despondent, yet texturally satisfying arrangements.
The band quietly make their way onto the stage with the ever increasing flood of audience members filling up the space. Alex plays in with some opening trills on the bass guitar, with the rest of the band following suit in a Caroline-esque build-up of sound. This track, ‘Dude Abides’ is an elevated scope on slowcore and post-rock, with elements of Slowdive and Duster seeping through atop the occasional metric jumps and brittle instrumentation. A distorted spoken word clip takes us into the introduction of ‘I’m Batman’, where we are welcomed to some gorgeous vocal harmonies between Alex and Ethan, as well as the subtle, yet glorious guitar interplay between Ethan and Antony. Some of the jolts in rhythm towards the middle-to-end sections of the song’s first half do remind me of fellow Brighton post-rockers Flip Top Head. The rhythmic backbone of the song picks up into the second half where we get a more hypnotic and driving pulse, before the track quietens down to Ethan on guitar by himself, demonstrating the band’s prowess for dynamic flexibility.
Alex takes a moment to say thanks for coming following another spoken word clip about killing a spider before we come to the track ‘Ant Mill’. This track is one of the more upbeat and coherent songs of the set comparatively, almost like a melodic take on a classic Slint track, with Alex assuming vocal duties for its duration. Approaching the track ‘Flightless Bird’, Alex swaps to a baritone guitar where he performs solo for a stunning performance that evokes memories of the sorely-missed band Tapir!, loose and free in its melodic inflections. The heaviest song of the set ‘True Love Endures’ makes use of an incredibly gratifying assemblage of distortion.
There’s such a notable muster of sound that comes from Glasshouse Red Spider Mite, it’s baffling that these guys are not more well-known outside of Brighton’s scene…! After an expression of gratitude to both Dutch Interior and Green Door Store, as well as a much-needed proclamation to free Palestine, we come to my personal favourite song of the set, the closer of the performance, and the opener on the EP, ‘Everyone Loves You’; a track that perfectly encapsulates Glasshouse Red Spider Mite’s appeal to the Dutch Interior crowd, with its gloriously heartfelt tone palette, and gut-punching lyrics to come from the frontmen: “Get right back here and love me, I swear I’m alone now…”. Finally after months of missed opportunities, I got to see Glasshouse Red Spider Mite in their natural habitat, on a Brighton stage, delivering what I could happily describe as some of the best the music scene has to offer.
Glasshouse Red Spider Mite:
Alex J M Turner – bass guitar, vocals, baritone guitar
Ethan Barton – electric guitar, vocals
Antony Panayi – electric guitar
Benji Reeves – drums
Glasshouse Red Spider Mite setlist:
‘Dude Abides’
‘I’m Batman’
‘Ant Mill’
‘Flightless Bird’
‘True Love Endures’
‘Everyone Loves You’
www.instagram.com/glasshouseredspidermite
After moments of conversation catch-ups with Petra, the photographer for the evening, the sextet of Californians that make up Dutch Interior, brothers Shane and Hayden Barton on keys and drums respectively, guitarists Jack Nugent, Connor Reeves and Noah Kurtz, and bassist Davis Stewart, silently infiltrate the stage and kick off their set with no introduction or warning. The band welcome us to their world with the first three songs on their latest record, ‘Moneyball’; starting with ‘Canada’, with an Americana slant overshadowed by a fuzzed-out outro, complete with Jack’s technique of bowing electric guitar strings with a screwdriver (Efrim Menuck, eat your heart out!). The latter two tracks of this opening streak feature innovative usage of instrumentation, i.e. a harmonica duct-taped to a microphone for Connor to use through his pedalboard (‘Sandcastle Molds’) and a distinctive vocal infusion of MJ Lenderman and Jeff Tweedy (‘Woodknot’). I mentioned to Shane after the show that ‘I’ll Be Damned’ was one of my favourite tracks of the set, thanks to its classically alternative country soundplay and lusciously-delivered vocal harmonies from Connor and Noah.
Following the slick and spacious ‘Fourth Street’, sung by Noah, we are treated to a two-song punch of performances from Shane on ‘Science Fiction’ and ‘It’s Smokey Outside And I’m Afraid’, both tracks taking shape within a very melancholic atmosphere with Shane’s haunting vocals reminding me of a blend of ANOHNI and Kurt Wagner. The band give their love and appreciation to Glasshouse Red Spider Mite for joining them on their tour before heading into the warm, sweet backdrop of Americana on ‘Light Of Becoming’, marking Jack’s second instance of lead vocals. I must say, it’s totally refreshing to see such a grand display of collaboration between the band, with almost every other song being sung by a different member in quick succession.
The heaviest song of the set, ‘Eicg’, is a refreshing change of pace, complete with more noise-heavy arrangements and a rallentando in its ending hits hard. Shane serenades us once again on the track ‘Beekeeping’, the closing track on ‘Moneyball’. A fragile and bittersweet cut, we see all manner of emotion delivered here, from Shane’s soft vocal performance and Noah’s low-end Gibson guitar riff to Jack full-on slouching over his harmonium.
Shortly after, Connor warns the crowd “We’re gonna play some country music now”, and boy they weren’t kidding, as the tracks ‘Horse’ and ‘Sweet Time’ swiftly prove, both implementing a lighthearted mix of warm piano lines, interlocking vocal harmonies and a jam section on the closing track that gets the audience moving more than ever.
Nearly 90 minutes into the performance, we reach the final two songs of the set: ‘Cannibal Song’, with its distinctively slowcore feel from Jack’s vocals and Connor’s guitar in its opening moments, not to mention some inventive tone switching from Connor later on in the track, and ‘Oscar, Please’, the only song to be sung by bassist Davis, whose Brian McMahan-esque vocal makes for a haunting change of atmosphere compared to his bandmates. This track is an absolute monolith of a set closer, complete with dissonant and chaotic guitar passages against slow, funereal drum rhythms before ending on a vast chasm of noise and distorted feedback to bring the performances back down to earth.
Dutch Interior was celebrated so lovingly that night, with many audience-band member conversations taking place, as well as the dialogue I was lucky to have with Shane and Connor during their packdown. I was totally enthralled by a band I had no conscious knowledge about not even 6 hours before the final moments of ‘Oscar, Please’, but as I finish my review off, I believe these guys to be one of the most creatively gratifying, sonically interesting and melodically entrancing bands I’ve witnessed in a long time. Good luck, guys, with all you do going forward. I’ll be listening!
Dutch Interior:
Jack Nugent – electric guitar, vocals, harmonium
Connor Reeves – electric guitar, vocals, keys
Davis Stewart – bass guitar
Noah Kurtz – guitar, vocals
Shane Barton – keys, vocals, acoustic guitar
Hayden Barton – drums
Dutch Interior setlist:
‘Canada’
‘Sandcastle Molds’
‘Woodknot’
‘I’ll Be Damned’
‘Fourth Street’
‘Science Fiction’
‘It’s Smokey Outside And I’m Afraid’
‘Light Of Becoming’
‘Eicg’
‘Beekeeping’
‘Horse’
‘Sweet Time’
‘Cannibal Song’
‘Oscar, Please?’
