This past Sunday, Real Estate performed at the Teragram Ballroom with opening act Chris Cohen. I arrived in time for Chris Cohen’s soundcheck and caught his mesmerizing opening act. I was completely enthralled by his bass vocals and jazzy rhythms. Cohen is known mostly as the guitarist in Deerhoof, and his additional band, the Curtains, but this group is just as note-worthy. The set was over way too soon, as I couldn’t get enough of this sound that was coming from the stage. One of my favorites from Cohen’s set included the catchy “Caller No. 99” particularly the rhythmic triplets leading up to the chorus, “Is that my nature…” such a well done song! His set left me completely breathless and I’ve been listening to As If Apart all week.
It had been about a year since I had last seen Real Estate performing during the KCRW Summer Nights Series at the Santa Monica Pier, and I was curious to see how they’d get on without founding member, Matt Mondanile, who had gone to pursue his successful band Ducktails full-time. It seems as though each of these band members have their own side-projects, as I had seen Martin Courtney perform his solo works just earlier in the year.
To my delight, the band’s sound wasn’t compromised in any way, as new guitarist Julian Lynch threw himself into the music. I was also delighted to hear new tracks, including one that it most likely named “Impatiently,” which is nodoubtedly how I will await their upcoming album release!
The Teragram Ballroom is a lovely space for a show of this size. On a warm Sunday night, the space was full of good people and good vibes. My friend and I made our way near the front of the stage, fully prepared to ooh and ahh at any given time during the set. In fact, you can hear our obnoxious selves in the snapchat feed I uploaded below! We had a great time singing along to jangly indie-rock tunes like “It’s Real” and sway to the fullest extent to the instrumental “Kinder Blumen” and to “Out of Tune,” which has to be one of my all-time favorite songs of theirs. They closed their set with an epic instrumental outro of “All the Same.”
Catch some videos of the show below:
Indiecation 