Live Review: Real Estate “Days”

by josh keller · Published November 2, 2011 · Updated November 2, 2011

Real Estate, touring behind their recently released sophomore LP Days, played a spirited hour long set Tuesday night to a decent sized and enthusiastic crowd at the 400 bar. While their music leans towards the sleepier, lush pop music side of the spectrum, the band seemed to play off the energy of the young crowd (bassist Alex Bleeker at one point the jokingly asked the excitable crowd “how do you all like college?”). Leaning heavily on their new LP, the group showed the muscle behind their beach combing reverb drenched jams and the power of their full sounding, five piece setup.

Early set highlights included a rousing version of Days standout “It’s Real,” although the band didn’t seem to lose steam even during the slower, dreamier tracks in their repertoire. The later part of the set was anchored by a confident take on “Out of Tune” and the band dipping back into their amazing debut self-titled LP. Frontman Martin Courtney was the human manifestation of the detached, cool and charming sounds coming from the band while guitarist Matthew Mondanile (aka Ducktails) seemed to be channeling his inner rocker as he jammed out during the songs, even when their beat didn’t keep up withhis energy. Days, and Real Estate in general, are often called a “fall band,” which normally is more conducive to dropping the needle on a record than really knocking out crowds in the live setting, but the band proved their mettle with their great set Tuesday night.

While I would have loved to have heard from more the band’s debut record, which is one of my favorite records of the last few years, the new album is growing on me each day and it was cool to hear the songs in the live setting. The band’s sound has become increasingly tight since I first saw them a few years back and the expanded sound of the five piece was able to stretch, expands and deconstruct their songs in a way that brought even their most somber songs to life. While there has been no doubt about Real Estates talent as a studio band, they have proven that next step that they can confidently bring their songs to life in the live setting and really reiterated why they are one of my favorite bands around right now.

-Josh