April 2012, 40 Watt, Athens, Ga.
The live show experience is one never to be missed, it’s where you tell if a band really has it or not. With all the amazing aspects of production, any piece of crap music can sound palatable and perhaps even good on record — but all this goes away when you’re on stage in front of people who expect you to recreate what they first heard. I never trust bands who don’t tour, it tells me they’re hiding something.
I’ve been listening to Real Estate for a while now, and have grown fond of the power indie pop/rock sound they’ve developed. On the album, the band belies its roots — it doesn’t sound like a band from New Jersey (now Brooklyn), instead coming across as a group from the Pacific Coast, dabbling in breezy guitar clips and a calmness that comes with the territory. But I’ve found that while this kind of sound is great on a record, it doesn’t always work out live (I’m looking at you Morning Benders), making for shows more meh than yeah.
Let’s just say Real Estate has it worked out in ways I didn’t expect, as its show at the 40 Watt was electric and bold. While the band roamed through tracks off of its 2011 release Days and 2009’s self-titled album, there were two things perfectly clear: The live tracks add a power and depth not obvious on the record, and the band emulates the best Jersey has to offer — with images of The Feelies and The Wrens wending throughout the quintet’s catalog.
Singer/guitarist Martin Courtney took center stage, and while donning the unassuming look of Clark Kent, provided a strong force in leading the band through the 15-song set. The band opened with “Days’ Municipality,” a nice primer for the night, as it was clear from the start how important the rhythm section — Alex Bleeker on bass and Jackson Pollis on drums — is to the band’s sound. While Courtney and Matthew Mondanile expertly picked through their inventive guitar lines, Bleeker and Pollis provided a pleasant punch to the proceedings. This was best seen in “All the Same,” the fourth song of the night, which saw the band erupt into a celebratory jam that didn’t ever have to end (and I am a famous hater of songs that go on too long).
So good was the set that the more popular songs you’d expect to move the crowd higher — such as “It’s Real,” “Easy” and “Beach Comber” — were met with the same enthusiasm as the rest of the set. “This is a great crowd,” Mondanile noted at one point, and he was right. The near-packed Watt was invested and the band noticed. “This is a great town with a great crowd,” added the talkative Bleeker, the band member most interactive with the audience. Even the Chris Spedding cover “Video Life” brought the crowd in, and this was a group that wanted to hear nothing but Real Estate songs.
And who could blame them, especially when the band was working it song after song. My a-ha moment came during “Younger Than Yesterday,” when closing my eyes, I heard the familiar Feelies guitar refrains emanating from the stage, but not in an easy, copy-cat way. Real Estate had taken a piece from the 1980s legends and made it part of its oeuvre in a seamless and heartfelt way. I haven’t felt that too often coming from a newer band, and it made my night.
I wasn’t sure what Real Estate had to offer live, but I’m sure happy I found out. For this band, the best location, location, location is on stage.
