Here in St. Louis, cool weekend club shows are special, since nationally-touring acts generally pass through town during the week. Not to go all adulting on you, but there are few moments more powerful than the promise of a catharsis at the end of a more-trying-than-usual workweek/lifeweek. For many of us, Friday night’s show at the Firebird was the fresh light at the end of a kinda shitty tunnel.

Touring in support of their latest album, Atlas [WHICH IS GORGEOUS, GO BUY IT], Real Estate loaded onto the stage like a band with 3 hit records. They played beautifully, the lead guitar just as melodic and important as the lead vocals and every song possessed an intense heart that swelled and ached. Had I not been listening to Atlas obsessively since its release, I would have been shocked at the tone change from chill suburban house-party band to subdued rumination steeped in wisdom, slightly wistful introspection on the rapid passage of time.

Stage dressing was deceptively simple: six panels of white mounted as backdrop to the band picked up washes of color specific to each song, and fans blew white smoke across them like fast-moving clouds. The dreamy psychedelic visuals weren’t escapist, they were grounding, and sadly, had it been a weeknight, I think the crowd would have been more into listening than chatting with their friends.

An aside: between songs, Real Estates’ perfunctory stage banter sounded bored and forced, and maybe just don’t? Indie rock has a proud tradition of not bothering with banter, and I don’t know why Real Estate felt the need to buck that, because they clearly weren’t enjoying the effort, and the audience felt real awkward answering questions like, “Do you like breakfast?”

P.S. Dear Pure X: What the hell, man? Your record is AWESOME. Don’t hide that shit. The midwest can handle the real you, I promise. Come back and show us, okay? And I’m not saying it was bad at all, but we were expecting a wicked juxtaposition between you and Real Estate, and instead, we kinda got two sets of Real Estate. We ain’t mad atcha, but do come back.

Super special thanks for photographer badass Jess Luther. Check out all her Friday night pictures at IWTAS’s Flickr:

Real Estate Here

Pure X Here