On February 28th, a chilly Wednesday night in Los Angeles, The Theater at the Ace Hotel was buzzing with concert-goers ready to watch New Jersey-based indie rock band Real Estate. This was the final stop of their tour with opening act, Bedouine.
Around 8:30 p.m. people were causally filtering into the Theater, marveling at the Spanish Gothic architecture and embellishments as they look up towards the ceiling. Bedouine took the stage promptly at 9:00 p.m., just her and her guitar. She was donning a flowing colonial-inspired dress with long open sleeves she kept commenting on throughout her set, as she hoped they wouldn’t interfere with her guitar playing. She opened with the soft and dreamy “You Kill Me,” a song with a folk melody and soft, arpeggiated guitar. “I love sit-down shows,” she shared between songs. “Sitting is one of my favorite things,” she joked, to which the crowd chuckled. She had a man join her on stage on the bass and backing vocals for the rest of the set. “I think I saw a mosh pit… it happens sometimes,” she joked again after they played the soft “Skyline,” and the crowd perked up in anticipation of more one-liners. She also implored the audience to name a new song for her, which of course resulted in all kinds of feedback from the audience after the song ended like “Netflix and Chill.” But when she heard “Lazy Baby,” she shared that was a title she’d been considering. “Your dress is gorgeous!” one audience member shouted between songs. “Thank you, someone said I look like a hooker on Westworld,” she joked, this time really ensuing in laughter from the audience. After performing more mellow folk songs off her self-titled album like “Solitary Daughter” and “Dusty Eyes,” the members of Real Estate joined Bedouine on stage for her final song “One of These Days.”
The crowd cheered as Real Estate took the stage, and the room was noticeably more full. Before their opening song, bass player Alex Bleeker invited the crowd to get up and dance even if it was a sit-down venue, prompting some of the audience members to stand up. They opened with “Stained Glass,” which was just high-energy enough to get the crowd moving. They performed a healthy mix of old and new, moving right into the dreamy “Younger Than Yesterday.” The audience sat down for most of the slower songs, getting up when the energy heightened with tracks like “Had to Hear,” “Crime” and “It’s Real.” The band didn’t talk much, opting to play as many songs as possible during their set. Bleeker shared a couple more awkward exchanges with the crowd like “You’re all so well-behaved” and “I like this building… it’s pretend-old like L.A.,” to which signer Martin Courtney responded “I think it’s real old… don’t antagonize the audience,” as the L.A. crowd murmured disapprovingly.
But all was forgiven when Real Estate treated the crowd to some body-rocking extended jams on their more epic songs like “Two Arrows” and even performed a new song as well with another jam-y ending. During “It’s Real,” the crowd sang along to the “Ohs” and danced around to the faster-paced song. The band took a moment to share their gratitude for the lights and sound people on tour with them, before mentioning again that this was the final stop of their tour with Bedouine. They closed the set with “Two Arrows” and “The Bend,” extending the instrumental jam at the end of “Two Arrows” to a crescendo, building the guitar lick and solo in intensity until the sound came to a screech, lights flashing everywhere. It was one of the best moments of the set so far, until the band stepped out for an encore performance of “All The Same,” again finishing the show on an extended jam that built up and then slowed way down.
Just like that, the show was over at approximately 11:30 p.m. and the crowd began to filter out. Wild Nothing lead singer Jack Tatum could be seen in the crowd showing his support of the band and their mutual keyboardist Matt Kallman. Concert-goers took in the lobby architecture one last time before heading out on this chilly L.A. Wednesday night.
Set List:
1. Stained Glass
2. Younger Than Yesterday
3. Had To Hear
4. After the Moon
5. Darling
6. Saturday
7. Crime
8. Municipality
9. Green Aisles
10. New Song
11. It’s Real
12. Two Arrows
13. The Bend
Encore:
14. All The Same
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