Sunny Day Real Estate at The Forum
Sunny Day Real Estate – The Forum – 31 May 2010
Words by Brendan Monteiro / Photo’s by Marcus Maschwitz
During the recent attack of volcanic ash on our airspace a lot of good shows had to be cancelled but undoubtedly the most significant cancellation had to be Sunny Day Real Estate, the fact that it was set to be their first UK appearance made the prospect of not seeing them all the more worse. Eventually to the relief of fans, the Seattle rockers announced their plans to reschedule. With dates in place the burning question on everyone’s mind was “who is going to open for them”, the aforementioned show was meant to have Saves The Day but unfortunately this was not going to be the case this time. SDRE felt the need to give the fans a little more this time around and soon announced that a “very special guest” would be opening, with a clue that it would be one of the bands playing this years Reading and Leeds festival. Straight away I started strategically running through the festival line-up to see who it could be. Three names stood out from the rest for me; Arcade Fire, Weezer and Blink 182, the latter probably being more of wish than a probable guess.
Promoters, press and the band themselves all seem tight lipped and dead set on keeping the secret as to whom would be opening the show, eventually the time arrived and upon walking into The Forum my first instinct is to check the stage for clues, by the looks of the stage all three of my guesses are wrong. The lights dimmer as they always do and out walks Simon Neil, James and Ben Johnston; yip Biffy Clyro are the secret guest and what adds to the dazzle of them being on the roster is that they’re playing a down-tone acoustic set. Ben is sat on what looks like a box and I’m wondering if or where his tambourine is, Simon eases into Saturday Superhouse and Ben filters in some percussion using the flat of his hand against the box as a floor bass and a sort of knuckleduster type steel ring that he taps as a makeshift snare. The effect is something totally different from a normal Biffy Clyro show, the Saturday Superhouse comes accross so warm, humble and more intimate than ever before, one of those surreal goosebumps moment. They gently run through an amazing little set that includes God and Satan, The Captain and Many Of Horror. All the songs suit the down tempo acoustic spin that they have put on them, even The Captain and it’s intriguing spazziness. Simon’s voice is surreal and emotive and it’s strengthens the impact of his spirited lyrics.
There are a few complaints in the crowd, possibly the signs of some of the guests expecting someone else to open but I think seeing Biffy Clyro in this setting was something so special and different and I personally wouldn’t of traded it for anything different, it was the perfect opening. They come across humbled by the fact that they have been able to open for Sunny Day Real Estate; not like some bands who thank the band then carry on playing their show, instead with Biffy you can seriously see that they are honoured to be here tonight. They finish their set on a solid high note with a majority of the crowd singing Mountains back to them, once again adding to the acoustic charm of it all.
I have to admit that I missed the boat on Sunny Day Real Estate and prior to when they walk out on stage had not heard any of their material, the only thing I really knew was that Nate Mendell and William Goldmist were both originally in SDRE before moving on to Foo Fighters. They make their way on stage and much like Biffy Clyro seem very humbled to be in front of this audience, Jeremy Enigk walks up to the mic and says “We’re Sunny Day Real Estate and we’re going to play some songs”. Looking back on it now it had to be an amazing moment for them, what other band can you really think of that makes their first UK appearance at a packed out venue like The Forum, not many I guess .
They start off the night with what I would later find out is Friday, there is a huge roar from the moment Jeremy rings out his first vocals and straight away I am fascinated by his strained vocal style, it adds a tempestuous depth to the music, it heave’s during the more abrasive parts and then enfolds and layers the melodic moments and for me it flashes back memories of Counterfeit, The Beautiful Mistake and the Clarity album by Jimmy Eat World. These flashes keep filtering to me throughout their set and it’s only in seeing Sunny Day Real Estate that I now finally see how influential they were on so many of my favourite bands. Their songs cannot be described as sounding the same yet each song on the set glides effortlessly into the next, In Circles gets an even louder roar from the crowd as does each song after. Seven is third on the set and standouts as my favourite of the evening, it has such an epic feel to the music but done in such a way as not to feel overdone and over layered. Jeremy erupts the chorus “you’ll taste it” in unison with the whole crowd. I also love how it has a sort of dive bomb feel to the guitars as they break down and then erupt again. I cannot commend Jeremy enough on his vocal range, it has so much emotion in it and makes me imagine what Phil Collins would sound like in a heavier band. When he screams it sounds like he sucks it up right from the bottom of his heart, bringing with it all the passion you could possibly imagine. It’s like he shoots the words out of himself with all the fervour and fiery angst a man can muster.
The whole night I keep beating myself up about the fact that I don’t really know their material because every single song they play sounds like it could be a favourite for me. They sound like one of those bands that just don’t make bad songs, their songs fusion of melody and angst is par with the relationship between the sun and earth, absolutely perfect! They finish the night off with an encore of The Ocean and Sometimes; looking around at the crowd of people all singing I feel an overwhelming sensation of jealousy at the fact that I don’t know the words but you don’t need to know them to know that this was a once in a lifetime show!
