Real Estate played Atlas at Music Hall of Williamsburg

Real Estate are playing their third album, Atlas, in-full on their current tour and their stop in Brooklyn served as the official homecoming show.

There’s something intrinsically nostalgic about the music by Real Estate. The lyrics and moods often reflect past moments and memories and those experiences not only define many of their songs, but they help invoke similar sentiments with the listener. Thinking back on more mundane moments from youth through the lens of today’s perspective can be jarring, but through a Real Estate song, the rose tint makes the past feel sublime and worthy of revisits. Just over a decade after the release of Atlas, the band has now decided to play the album from start to finish, but eased into the night with other tracks from their career. Setting up that nostalgia trend, “Green Aisles” felt particularly autumnal and gave notes of that back to school feeling that never seems to go away despite being removed from that tradition for decades. Breezy melodies have always been part of the band’s charm and it still hasn’t grown old, their bucolic sound the pleasant respite many crave. After a few of their other hits warmed up the crowd, the band kicked off the record the tour is celebrating and while folks were already grinning, things picked up when “Had to Hear” rang out and from then on out, it was pure elation. Hitting us again with a burst of unfiltered nostalgia, “Past Lives” really conjured up the raw emotions and let things sink in before the buoyant chords of “Talking Backwards” lifted our spirits. It would be hard to talk about this album in general without acknowledging that hearing it in the neighborhood where the band composed the songs made it feel extra special, Atlas was an album that felt like a major moment for not just the band but Williamsburg as well. “We lived here when they were filming Girls” bassist Alex Bleeker remarked to the crowd. “I don’t know if that makes us cooler or not” lead singer Martin Courtney responded and soon both broke into the banter of how the neighborhood had changed to become safer and cleaner before taking blame for also making it so an Hermes store could open. Since their debut, Real Estate has always been a band that made comforting music, remaining chilled-out, but if needed could kick things up just a bit. The instrumental interludes of Atlas make their jammier moments even more apparent, but the bright choruses of tracks like “Crime” reinvigorated energy and brought out more of their effervescent pop aesthetics that make these songs so inviting. Following the record, the band came back to close out with a few more numbers from some of their other albums and threw in some new songs as well (one made its live debut, I believe, too). For their final track of the night, “It’s Real” made for rousing send off the evening deserved. Over a decade later, Atlas remains an exciting record and a rewarding re-listen.