Hey, everybody. Last night's show was AMAZING! Of course you know it was. Man, I
hadn't seen sunny day in like 5 months, it felt like an eternity. I've now seen sdre 5
times. How spoiled I am...good thing I never get sick of them.
So anyway about the show. I got there about a half hour early and ran into Anthony
Schmidt (hard name to spell). That was cool. He's the only other lister I know by
face besides my man Josh Nollette. But yeagh. The doors opened and I ran to the very
front. Always the best way to see sunny day. I had my girlfriend save my place in the
front while I went and spent all my remaining 1 dollar bills on the various different
sdre stickers (the same ones they have for sale at the page). Stella Maris took the
stage. They were pretty cool. On the mellow side, but that's not necesarilly a bad
thing. The thing that really made their set not too enjoyable for me is that the bass
drum was about 2 feet away from my face. I had to plug my ears the whole time to keep
the drums from imploding my skull.
But anyway...Death Cab gets up there. I have been listening to their album lately
which is very good. But the guy who posted about the sound was right, it sounded kinda
shitty, but I really enjoyed their set. And the conflict with the bastard guy with the
goatee and lip ring who was just giving them the bird the whole time and jumping up
and down, that was hilarious. The Death Cab singer was saying: "Hey, your here to see
sunny day real estate, right? This isn't a Korn show!" and stuff like: "Am I not
'alternative' enough for you, is that it? Well, sorry" The guy got embarassed cause
the whole crowd was laughing at him and left.
But now let's get down to what it's all about: sunny day real estate. I always get
a kick out of the 'sunny day stage team' that sets their stuff up. I noticed William
got a new drumset. It's like a sparkely red color, I'm not sure what brand it is, his
old one was that really nice purple Ayotte. I don't know why he replaced it, but his
new one sounds just as good. But they get up there and start playing Pillars. Right
off the bat I notice something a bit odd: They are NOT RUSHING! On all the sunny day
boots I have from the new album tour, except their FIRST SHOW in seattle last July,
they rushed (speed up the tempo) of all the songs, it never really bugged me, but it
did kind of take away from a bit of the intensity. But this time they were playing the
slow, eerie, intense feeling of Pillars just like it is on the record. They held the
tempo wonderfully throughout the whole set. I don't know if they like, listened to
the record and said "Hey, we always play it faster th!
!
an that" or something, or if it was not purposely. But it was cool.
Man, it's so awesome to be in front at a SDRE show, William was like 5 feet in
front of me, we were constantlly making eye contact the whole show. And Dan would
always go RIGHT UP next to the crowd and just play all wildly like he does, rolling
his head around and stuff. I took a whole role of b&w pictures of the show, I can't
wait to get them back, they're gonna be awesome.
After playing G&V they played The Blankets were the stairs. Totally intense.
This was the LOUDEST time I've ever seen Sunny Day Real Estate. The drums were
probablly louder than the first band but it didn't bother me because I love William's
drumming so much. But the volume level of the show really added to the intensity.
One thing I noticed that kind of dissapointed me was that Jeremy got another guitar
that he tunes down to D and plays the old songs on. He only played the good old SG on
In Circles. I wonder why only on that song. But yea, he got this kind of blueish Les
Paul. Not really a big deal, but...I have emotional attachment to the SG.
So then they played the standard 100 Million, Every Shining Time You Arrive
combo. Followed by a beautifull perfomance of Song About an Angel... tear jerking.
They played a moving performance of The Prophet, and probablly the best time I've ever
seen them play the song How it Feels to be Something On, because they kept it on the
right beat perfectlly!
After that they suprised me with the setlist. I was totally expecting them to
play Rodeo Jones, then go offstage, come back and do the Circles, Roses, Daze encore.
Dan says: "How'd you guys like to hear something off the pink record?" The crowd gets
excited, I'm thinking "Rodeo Jones" all the way. Then they bust into Waffle. That was
totally rad. So then I didn't have a clue what they were gonna do with the set, then
they play an amazing J'nuh. They just keep doing more and more stuff with the bridge
part. On the first bridge Will was doing all this weird drumming that almost sounds
like he's gonna get off beat (cause that's such a weird time anyway, for that bridge
part) but then he kept it syncronized perfectlly. And on the second one he did the
thing where he crashes the cymbols and bass drum faster and faster. It was awesome.
So they go offstage for a while, let the crowd get excited, and come back out
and play In Circles. Moving, but Jeremy didn't sing the "you opened my eyes..." part.
Which I abolutely love. Then the play Roses in Water, and end with Days Were Golden.
You've probablly heard about the "hard" part. I LOVED that! Out of the blue in this
totally mellow, laid back ending of Days Were Golen, I see Jeremy step on DISTORTION
and start screaming something while William beats on his big ass fucking cymbols. They
did this "hard part" 4 times, Jeremy put down his guitar, sang the thing from Day's
Design, then walked off. Followed by Dan, then Joe, then finally William.
All in all, one of the best times I've ever seen them. I think I'm giving up
on trying to decide which show is my favorite one. They're all just too damn good. To
those people who were saying they video taped this show, would you be able to trade
for something? I have a VERY nice selection of rare shows and sunny day stuff. e-mail
me privately. I can't wait to get my 20 something pictures back and I can't wait to
SEE THEM ALL OVER AGAIN!!!
Matthew Thomas Carlson III
Angelfire for your free web-based e-mail. http://www.angelfire.com
