It was freezing on Sunday night, but that didn’t stop a crowd from showing up for Real Estate’s stop at the Opera House in support of 2014’s Atlas. The much acclaimed album – and the third in the New Jersey born, Brooklyn-based band’s catalogue – has certainly piqued the interest of the public, the band selling out the 850-person room with ease.
Austin’s Pure X opened the show, starting their set to a half-full room. The quartet has been on the road with Real Estate in advance of their third album, Angel, expected out April 1st. They were heavy on bass, gently rocking the audience and filling the venue with drummer Austin Youngblood’s liberal use of wind chimes.
The finer points of Pure X’s expansive wall of sound were unfortunately lost in the mix; the Opera House’s sound system is not a particular perk of the venue. But while vocals were lazily delivered and regrettably difficult to make out, they excelled at their guitar work – the acoustic in particular providing some much needed richness and warmth. All in all, their set was rather reminiscent of The Antlers but steeped more in grunge (droning guitars ended their 45-minute set) than their contemporary’s finesse.
By the time Real Estate got on stage – helped out by former SportsCentre host Jay Onrait, serving as a hype man – the venue was understandably packed. Behind the five-piece were 15 small white squares: a canvas for their first proper tour light show and recalling Atlas’ cover artwork.
The band came out strong on guitars with “Had To Hear,” Atlas’ leadoff track. From a distance, guitarist Matt Mondanile played and recalled Sloan’s Chris Murphy. He was responsible for much of the night’s interest – his riffs, like on Days’ “Green Aisles,” very much encouraged by the crowd.
The night itself was very casual, the band engaging with the audience between every single song by thanking them or with a brief bit of banter. Vocalist and guitarist Martin Courtney did well in his role, too. He has a comforting voice: not one that seems forced or like it requires too much exertion.
The band was comfortable on stage and seemed, genuinely, to enjoy the touring of new material. “Talking Backwards” was the most upbeat of their offerings, drummer Jackson Pollis consistently pounding away on a cymbal.
“I don’t know how many times we’ve played in Toronto. A lot,” said bassist Alex Bleeker. “But we like it,” he continued, going on to encourage the crowd to sign their guest book at the merch table. Bleeker himself picked up vocal duties on a couple of numbers, including encore-closer “Suburban Beverage.” Compared to Courtney, Bleeker’s voice is much more in the nasal-category: an interesting way to switch things up but not something they should rely on to carry the show.
But here’s the thing – the band undeniably writes catchy guitar riffs and pull off their recorded material very, very well. Their problem is that it’s all so similar. Whether from their self-titled 2009 debut or their third album – and regardless of if it’s an instrumental track or not – there’s not much that differentiates one song from the next.
This is both a good and bad thing. It’s good in the sense that it shows the band know and embrace their identity and that even if they don’t play your favourite song, it’s okay because they’ve probably played one that sounds close enough to it. It’s bad, because, well – monotony is a dangerous thing in a live setting.
To their credit, however, they’re an engaging enough group of people to keep the audience from getting bored. They continued their Toronto tradition of singing happy birthday to an audience member at one point and, after picking up an acoustic guitar, Courtney asked: “We have one question: fast or slow?” The crowd quickly responded with fast, bassist Bleeker adding in that it was like “choosing your own adventure.” It’s this type of band-crowd consciousness that’s necessary to pull of this type of music – and thankfully the members of Real Estate are also talented enough musicians to entertain an 18-song set. I’m just not sure how many of them I’d be able to watch.
