Real Estate, Electric Ballroom, London

Playing their only UK date for a while, I head down to one of Camden’s finest venues, the Electric Ballroom, to see Real Estate. As their album ‘Days’ has grown on me so much over the past year, I’m definitely excited to see how the music translates in a live atmosphere; as well as hopefully hearing some older tracks from their self-titled album. With some people making bets on what the first song they’re going to play will be, and others constantly checking their phones for the football updates, it’s safe to say it’s a mixed crowd.

After a supporting set from London based band The Proper Ornaments, Gross Magic takes to the stage looking suitably slacker with Sam McGarrigle adorning a backward baseball cap – looking like he’s come straight out of a 90s TV show. Playing some of the songs from his ‘Teen Jamz’ EP, the crowd is largely uninterested; going back to the bar for pint after pint until McGarrigle plays ‘Sweetest Touch’ which gets a cheer of recognition. It doesn’t help that whenever Sam tries to interact with the audience, the delay on his mic makes all conversation barely audible. The band do play a new song which sounds similar to material on ‘Teen Jamz’. You’d expect ‘Sweetest Touch’ to be saved for last but Gross Magic finish with an instrumental song, heavy with scuzzy guitar riffs which shows Sam’s skills better than on some of his more accessible material.

By the time Real Estate are set to come on stage, the crowd is more than ready – welcoming the New Jersey band with friendly heckles and applause. They warm up with ‘Young As Yesterday’, before launching into most recent single ‘Easy’ which triggers a large reaction and starts to move the largely still crowd. By ‘Municipality’, the band are fully in their stride as Bleeker, Courtney and Mondanile gel together to create a barrage of guitar/bass sounds, giving off a suitably summery atmosphere on the first warm summer night in a while in London; the climate of the music matching the temperature of the packed Electric Ballroom.

By ‘It’s Real’, there’s a whole crowd sing-along to the simple but infectious chorus, the crowd’s ‘oh whoa whoa whoa oh oh, it’s real’ loud enough to almost drown out Courtney’s voice. At one point, Bleeker converses with the audience, saying ‘I feel like an injured athlete, I’ve got a slipped disc but it was fine as soon as I got on stage!’ before taking over on lead vocals for ‘Wonder Years’, which also showcases some tight harmonies between Bleeker and Courtney. Courtney starts off a sentence, ‘We’re from New Jersey…’ and before he can finish, the crowd start ‘woo’ing excessively, as if New Jersey is their own hometown. Bleeker comments “We’ve played in London 7 or 8 times now,” and Mondanile also shows his appreciation for the city, contributing to their on-stage conversation by saying, “I love playing here”.

When Courtney announces ‘This is our last song,’ the crowd half cheer but at the same time show their disappointment – but that doesn’t stop them from being fully engaged during ‘Kinder Blumen’. Despite leaving the stage, the lights stay on and flash accordingly to the sounds of the crowd shouting ‘Encore! Encore! Encore!’ The door to the left of the stage closes and opens slowly for a minute in suspense before the band return to the stage and seem genuinely humbled, with Courtney exclaiming “Thank you guys for staying,” and then going on to say “We’re going to take our time with this one” before slowly easing into an extended version of early song ‘Let’s Rock The Beach’ and then gain their energy again for a “relatively new song” – perhaps from their new album, which they’re recording at the moment. Although the crowd is not overly energetic, understandably due to the sticky, humid conditions – they instead continued to heckle, wolf-whistle and applaud after each song and throughout the gig to show their appreciation for the New Jersey trio.