Most live shows follow a pattern: Open with something catchy but obscure; move
into the new material, sprinkling in a couple of old tunes for the faithful;
close with the radio hit; encore with another other radio hit.
And while Sunny Day Real Estate are hardly ones to heed rules, they
unabashedly smashed them last night as they opened with "In Circles," the only
SDRE song to travel along a bandwidth ... and that was back in 1995. Blowing
their wad in the first three minutes? Hardly. Sunny Day were just getting the
cumbersome "hit" out of the way, ridding the room of fairweather fans who had
come only to scream along with the only song they knew. But few left after
song one, and the overstuffed room pleaded for more of Sunny Day's pain all
the more as they were pierced by the band's fierce vocals, exploding guitars
and weighty bass lines.
It was surprising that much of the audience was well under the legal drinking
age, considering Sunny Day had only one full-length album, '94's Diary before
they parted ways. (They also had one posthumous release, a self-titled record
affectionately nicknamed "the Pink Album" by fans.) The group played few shows
(none in California with guitarist Dan Hoerner, who refused to fan the flames
of the media circus burning in Los Angeles), granted no interviews, and put
the band to rest while singer/guitarist Jeremy Enigk went in search of a
higher inspiration. Namely, Jesus.
Consequently, precious few in the audience had ever seen Sunny Day Real
Estate, the band at the core of emo-core, perform live before last night. When
word of the reunited group spread (sans original bassist Nate Mendel, who's
been playing with the Foo Fighters since '95; drummer William Goldsmith had
also joined Grohl's band at the same time, but left after the recording of The
Colour and the Shape in '96), devoted fans of the mythologized band held their
breath for the release of How It Feels to Be Something On, SDRE's first since
they got back together this year. And even though the album had been on the
shelves a mere six days, the cult of Sunny Day that dominated the crowd
already knew all the words.
And the new songs dominated the set. Playing no less than eight of the ten
songs off their new album, Sunny Day made intensely emotional and beautiful
noise that showed incredible maturity. Where the older songs were a bit rough
around the edges, the new songs sparkled like lusters on a chandelier, with
each song reflecting the light and color of the others. And while many bands
lose an audience's attention mid-set, Enigk and Hoerner kept the energy level
peaked, lowering the bar only for seconds between songs to graciously thank
their fans.
Each of the 13 songs sparkled, but there were obvious stand-outs. "Every
Shining Time You Arrive," with its acoustic opening and soprano chorus, and
the delicate "Guitar and Video Games," radiated to the back of the room, where
the lesser fans lurked around the bar. Even from the back, concert-goers could
see Enigk's eyebrows serving as commas, giving his emotions pause before
allowing them to pour dramatically from his mouth.
Closing with "Rodeo Jones" off the Pink Album, Hoerner, Enigk, Goldsmith and
replacement bassist Jeff Palmer of the Mommyheads exited to much imploring
from the crowd for a return. And with a gushing remark by Hoerner ("Every time
we play in New York, it gets better!"), they did, with three more emotive,
soaring, moody melodies. No radio-hit close, no rock-star posturing. Just
utter sonic bliss from a group making their valiant return from obscurity.