When I first heard the Sunny Day Real Estate rumors finally were confirmed back in April, I quickly jumped at the chance and purchased tickets for the first confirmed show by the original lineup, Jeremy Enigk, William Goldsmith, Dan Hoerner, and Nate Mendel, in over 15 years -- taking place at Musicfest NW in Portland.
After waiting and waiting, that performance finally went down on Friday night at Portland’s Crystal Ballroom, a magnificent venue with historic beauty, great site lines, and a very convenient large open bar area. This was my first show at the Crystal Ballroom, and I am itching to go back for another very soon. I highly recommend Portland’s Musicfest NW as well. The city was alive on Friday, and the shear amount of amazing music to be heard in conjunction with the festival was overwhelming. How do you choose between the solid lineup of bands playing Saturday at the many music venues up and down the Burnside strip like Red Fang, Om, Black Francis w/ The Moondoggies, and Portugal. The Man. Friday was an easier decision with the much anticipated Sunny Day Real Estate reunion show.
Earlier in the day, the band was scheduled to play live in the Doug Fir as part of KEXP’s live in studio performances in connection with MFNW. As we were hustling to Portland I got word that they had canceled the performance because Jeremy was experiencing a sore throat. I was bummed but we still were able to check out Chairlift instead.
Sunny Day took the stage at around 10pm and were met with thunderous excitement from the sold out Crystal Ballroom crowd. The set list for the night was a strong mix of songs from Sunny Day’s first two records, Diary and LP2. These were the records that included the original four members and that have recently been remastered and reissued by Sub Pop Records.
Jeremy’s voice was perfectly strong as he sang the old songs with as much indecipherable gusto as he did on the records. The band as a whole didn’t miss a beat, which is quite an accomplishment while being dormant for so long. My favorite moments included the second song of the night “Seven”, which was the first SDRE song I ever heard and caused me to spend my limited allowance on “Diary” back in 1994. I suppose the other highlights consisted mainly of songs from “Diary”, as I admit to not spending much time with LP2 in the past. “Shadows” was great, as was “Grendel”, and of course “In Circles”, the first song of their three song encore absolutely killed. Sunny Day also was extremely loud, I didn’t notice at first but when they completely rocked during out “In Circles”, I realized quickly that I should have been wearing my Hearos. It was so worth it but Ouch!!
The band looked like they were having a great time, and were very appreciative and receptive to the adoring audience. They even played a new song, which was nixed during their warm up gig in Tacoma last Wednesday. This may bode well for possible future Sunny Day Real Estate music and tours down the road.
Bottom line--the show was everything I hoped it would be, they did not disappoint and I am very excited for the Seattle homecoming happening October 16th at the Paramount Theater. Below are some videos and pictures I took, as well as the set list, the best I could recall. Cheers!
1. Friday
2. Seven
3. Red Elephant
4. Song About An Angel
5. Grendel
6. Shadows
7. Inscarabaid
8. 47
9. Theo B
10. "New Song"
11. 48
12. Sometimes
Encore:
13. In Circles
14. Spade & Parade
15. J'Nuh
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