Real Estate

Church of St John, Hackney, London, 3rd October

 

 

Reliability may be at the core of Real Estate’s stock-in-trade, but a note of diminishing returns has been palpable for the past seven years or so. Fifth album The Main Thing and Half A Human EP were a misfire of inspiration and devoid of solid gold songwriting. Such a predicament is perhaps expected for an indie band fourteen years into their journey. But the New Jersey quintet’s current sixth album, Daniel, is their finest and most coherent set since their peerless Atlas album a decade ago.

That effortless elan and fluent watery jangle translated into a consistently superb performance at St John’s church in east London. Overawed at the venue’s vivid beauty, and a generally rapturous and attentive audience, Real Estate locked into their silvery, liquid guitar lines with hypnotic drive. As John Squire and Ian Brown know, unlocking such an arching six string magic is difficult to recreate at whim. It is often remarked that Real Estate make melodic jangly pop appear effortless, but tonight reveals the meticulous effort, the fretboard cogs required to land such a strong strike rate. As if to signpost the confidence they have in Daniel, a lion share of the album’s tracks are unveiled tonight. Opener ‘Somebody New and ‘Say No More’ are yearning statements of intent, shrouded in an autumnal atmosphere that suits the venue.

Real Estate are not a ‘sonics’ band. They are not one for extending wig outs or, thankfully,  noodling diversions of their compact songs. But inspired  by the venue and a packed eager crowd, Real Estate are forceful and punchy tonight with  Martin Courtney (looking a bit like Ben Elton minus the mullet) singing with power and conviction.

Given the preponderance of midtempo ennui in their back catalogue, there was always a danger of such elegant beauty tipping over into tedium. Not a chance. Real Estate had a run of relative bangers early set to liven up the night. The turbocharging, Teenage Fan club sounding ‘Stained Glass’, Daniel keepers ‘Haunted World’ and ‘Water Underground’ as well as the outsized-chorus mainstay of It’s Real’ meant that attention spans were never sorely tested. In fact, Real Estate made judicious choices with their back catalogue and nobody left feeling short-changed. The only dud moment was a cover of Elton John’s ‘Daniel’ for the first encore. Undoubtedly meant as a cute nod to their titular album, but the gesture was redolent of when Cud or The Wedding Present did eyebrow-raising covers of cheesy hits as a mark of bad taste defiance. It begs the question 'why bother' when their own songs are so much better? And so it proved with a welcome airing of bassist Alex Bleeker’s dolefully tumbling ‘Wonder Years’ from Days, whilst set closer ‘Talking Backwards’ distilled all of Real Estate’s jigsaw intricacies and stunning melody in a perfect four minute rush. Note for note, this was Real Estate’s most commanding performance in London since their tours of 2011/12

 Any hints of diminishing returns were forcefully shown the door.

Neil Davenport