Seattle Subsonic

CHBP Sunday: Real Estate

July 29th, 2010

New Jersey’s comfy chill-rock act Real Estate is easily one of my favorite finds of 2010 (they’re self-titled record came out in November 2009 on Woodsist). Not one but TWO of their songs somehow became my concurrent Absolute Jams, “Beachcomber” and “Fake Blues”, back during a particularly bitter winter season. So when I’d heard they’d been recruited to play the third day of the Capitol Hill Block Party, I emphatically rejoiced. I mean, I made comments on Facebook about it and everything.

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Theirs was a late afternoon set around 6pm when the sun is just coming off its 5 o’clock peak performance. A slight breeze blew through the Pike corridor, cooling our skin and drifting our hair. There was no shoving or jostling in a (cheerful) crowd where elbow room was a surplus rather than a shortfall, and Real Estate’s easy, breezy guitar jangle came out from it’s submerged state to dance in the sun. “Beachcomber” was played first, then the crystalline waltz of the nostalgic “Pool Swimmers” and a real revved up rendition of the sweet ditty “Green River”. They played pretty much their entire self-titled LP (plus one groovy new one!) except for the Matthew Monandile-written instrumentals “Atlantic City” and “Let’s Rock the Beach”. Monandile, who moonlights as Ducktails all by his lonesome, unfortunately was absent. His replacement did an admirable job, despite frontman Martin Courtney’s frequent instruction (mostly via example, eye contact and word-mouthing). Bassist Alex Bleeker particularly enjoyed, and remarked on, all the weed smoke wafting up into his face. It was one of those perfect afternoons.

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As for my Absolute Jams, if “Beachcomber” sounded a bit placid, then “Fake Blues” certainly sounded a bit more peppy than usual. It was the highlight of one of my favorite sets all weekend, and lucky for me, I can relive it whenever I want:
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