Real Estate at Sunset Temple 11/13/11

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Photo: Erin Flanagan

In the past 10 years, San Diego’s North Park has undergone a transformation, sending home prices up and up. Some would point to the housing bubble. Others would point to gentrification as the young and the artsy have creeped into a once sleepy neighborhood.  The burst of the bubble, however, has brought home prices crashing down to earth across America, and that’s no where more apparent than in North Park, now littered with abandoned buildings and crumbling storefronts.

But on Sunday night, 200 or so of the younger generation gathered to check out a different kind of Real Estate. More than halfway through their tour, the fivesome from Ridgeway, New Jersey made their San Diego debut at Claire De Lune’s Sunset Temple to close out Sezio’s Four Day Weekend, which had already featured the likes of Lord Huron, Dirty Gold and Peter Wolf Crier.

The newly-renovated Sunset Temple is, like the surrounding neighborhood, a work-in-progress. Playing host to church in the morning and sporting the stylings of a venue made for senior prom, the Great Depression-aged building had to make due with temporary speakers, a barely-raised stage and a conditional-use alcohol permit–guerrilla chic, if you will. That led to limitations at San Diego’s newest music venue, however. Those in the back could barely see the performers without straining their necks and the audio infrastructure sputtered through the show, barely making it to midnight.

Real Estate didn’t seem to notice, arriving at the end of their west coast swing to a sold-out crowd, already primed by openers Big Troubles and San Diego’s own Little Deadman. Walking through the crowd and taking their places just past 11, the band immediately launched into the instrumental “Kinder Blumen” for a soothing start. It was a paced commencement for the quintet from Jersey who gave lead singer, Martin Courtney, a chance to rest a voice already ragged from the 18-show tour. The singer was soon called into action and stretched his vocals cords on “Younger Than Yesterday” and the beautifully worked “Municipality.” With only two full releases, Sunday’s show focused on Real Estate’s latest album, Days, as the band moved effortlessly through each track. Bassist Alex Bleeker, the liveliest of the bunch, took over on lead vocals for “Wonder Years,” a simple song with pop sensibilities that seemed the easiest for the primitive soundsystem to digest. Guitarist Matthew Mondanile, also of Ducktails fame, then took over singing duties. “I played in San Diego before with my other band,” he said. “There weren’t that many people there.”

With odd footage of toads, bears and fauna behind them looping on a projector screen, Real Estate continued through their set without a hiccup, pausing only for the brief tuning or awkward statement. “It’s Real,” the band’s current single, brought out the best of the crowd, immediately eliciting the necessary “Oooooohooohoohohhh’s” and smiles of familiarity. But with a limited discography, the band promptly ended at midnight, closing out with “All The Same” and drawing out the final intertwining guitar riffs into a 5-minute long meander complete with slow-down. “We’ll be back,” they promised, before melting back into the crowd, packing up their van and heading to their next stop, Tempe.

Real Estate- Wonder Years (download)

Real Estate- All The Same (download)