Real Estate mixing things up for their latest tour

Originally published in the San Francisco Examiner on March 12

For more than a decade, Real Estate have been defined by their dependable excellence. Every couple of years, the New Jersey indie rock band is basically guaranteed to release an album of languid beauty, combining elements of catchy jangle pop, melodious harmonies and intriguing wordplay.

Although reliability has become almost synonymous for the band at this point, Real Estate have opted to do something decidedly off brand for their latest tour. Their shows have been displays of unpredictable eccentricity, with their tour opener in New York City only available to attendees with the name Daniel (the name of their latest album) and subsequent performances embracing interactive audience set pieces.

For their show last month at The Independent, the band played a game of rock bingo, where each popped ball encouraged a new prompt, such as “drummer plays guitar” and when they make their return to San Francisco for a show at Bimbo’s 365 Club on Wednesday, that same kind of random energy will be present.

“It just kind of dawned on me that we didn’t have to do the same thing every night,” said Real Estate bassist and founding member Alex Bleeker. “It’s kind of crazy that people gather in a room and are still willing to look at us after all these years. And there’s so many other things you can do than just stand on stage and play your songs.”

While the band is devoted to delivering a unique experience, Real Estate does not need to rely on gimmicks to put on a compelling show. “Daniel,” the group’s sixth full-length album, is another document of flawless and clever songwriting, crafted in the mode of their New Jersey slack-rocker predecessors The Feelies and power-pop auteurs Big Star.

The group recorded the album in Nashville, and their countrified environs bleed into the record. That’s particularly noticeable in the presence of the pedal steel, an instrument that thrusts the band from the suburbs of New Jersey into the murkier swamps of the Deep South.

The pedal steel pops up periodically throughout “Daniel,” acting as a guiding North Star (“Haunted World”), a searing and silvery complementary addition (“Interior”) and as ominous and forlorn backdrop (“You Are Here.”)

“It wasn’t like we wrote those songs with pedal steel in mind, but we just couldn’t resist,” said Bleeker. “It was about embracing the history of the place–embracing Nashville.”

Daniel is powered by the cooing vocals of primary songwriter Martin Courtney, whose pillowy delivery has become a trademark for Real Estate. His hushed tones and the band’s gentle pacing make every Real Estate album imminently listenable, but each new offering brings a different wrinkle to the group, something evidenced by the latest decision to embrace pedal steel.

And like past albums, “Daniel” features a cameo appearance from Bleeker on lead vocals, this time for the Dylanesque ballad “Victoria.” Bleeker, who also records as a solo artist and as Alex Bleeker and the Freaks, has long reveled in his supporting role—happy to act as the palate cleanser and gruffer foil to Courtney’s more placid demeanor.

“We’re not dogmatic at all about having a song of mine in every album,” said Bleeker. “Martin is our chief songwriter, so he’s like the meat and potatoes of what’s going on in Real Estate. But if I have a song that comes up during our writing process that makes sense to include and sounds good, we’ll add it into the mix.”

Although he met Courtney and Real Estate guitarist Julian Lynch as kids growing up in New Jersey, for the past decade Bleeker has lived in Marin County. His presence here has turned the Bay Area into a kind of home away from home for Real Estate, who are semi-regular presences in San Francisco, often playing at The Chapel in the Mission District.

However, the band has never performed at Bimbo’s and Bleeker has actually never stepped foot in the venerable North Beach venue.

“I’m very excited to play at Bimbo’s—it seems like it has such a cool vibe,” said Bleeker. “All the photos I’ve seen of the place just gives it this legendary kind of feel. I’ve been in the Bay Area for a decade now, so I’m almost nearing local status, which makes these San Francisco shows so much fun. I think we’re all super jazzed to be bookending our West Coast tour with another gig here. It’s going to be fun. And different, for sure.”