Two of the hardest working bands in the indie music scene today put on a show on Saturday, March 27 at the Rock N Roll Hotel. Real Estate and Woods validated their blog hype in front of a packed house at the small Washington, D.C. venue.
Of course, sometimes great things take a little while to get going, which was the case during the opening band, Surf City. The New Zealanders seemed bored with the crowd and they did not exhibit the energy that was felt in their music, which was repetitive and generic. Every guitar solo sounded the same, played at an ear-splitting volume that made it nearly impossible to distinguish the vocals from the mess of noise behind it.
After about 30 minutes of this torture, Real Estate took the stage. The band opened with “All Out Of Tune,” the token opening song for this tour before launching into the hit “Beach Comber.” As soon as the first notes of “Beach Comber” wafted over the audience from Martin Courtney’s guitar, the crowd was entranced in the fog of Courtney’s vocals and the steps of Matt Mondanile’s lead guitar riff.
About halfway through the set, the band dropped some new material in “Art Vandelay.” A reference to George Costanza’s alter ego on “Seinfeld,” the song was full of energy and included a tight solo from Mondanile, one of the only times he truly cut loose in the show. Drummer Etienne Duguay has developed his chops from Real Estate’s first days on the scene.
The band also unveiled a quicker, uptempo version of “Green River” while playing some of their self-titled debut suburban mainstays in “Suburban Dogs” and “Suburban Beverage.” The band closed their set with the hit from their debut, “Fake Blues.” After the band left the stage, the crowd implored the band to return, but Woods had already started taking the stage.
Woods is one of the most unorthodox bands on the circuit today. The band has the usual guitar, bass, and drums, but has added an unusual element in G. Lucas Crane. Crane has re-wired a crossfader for DJ turn tables to be compatible with two cassette tape decks and various distortion pedals. Instead of a microphone, Crane has also re-wired headphones that he can wear around his neck and sing into.
Singer and guitarist Jeremy Earl’s falsetto is a mainstay of Woods’ recordings and it was no different live. On songs like “To Clean” and “I Was Gone,” Earl sounded lifted from the album, while displaying expert guitar chops like on the opener “Creeps.” Woods was able to capture the audience as well, like on “Rain On,” arguably the band’s most popular song.
The show, though, really belonged to Crane. Leaned over his myriad of pedals, he never stopped manipulating the sound his band was outputting. In between nearly every song, he had to stop to wipe the sweat from his brow before the band continued.
At the conclusion of the set, Duguay reappeared on stage, imploring the crowd to make some noise for the bands to return. After about a minute, Real Estate bassist Alex Bleeker appeared and went over to Earl’s acoustic guitar. The rest of Real Estate appeared along with Woods and went for some 1990s nostalgia, playing Blind Melon’s “No Rain.” After a few fits of laughter, the whole audience sang along and danced to the seven minute version of the song before both bands left the stage for good.
Compared to recordings of earlier shows by both of these bands, the show at the Rock N Roll Hotel symbolizes how far the hard rock each band employs has taken their music. Both bands are looking to release newer material later this year that music fans should take note of.
Daniel Gallen can be reached for comment at [email protected]