Sunny Day Real Estate Celebrate 30 Years of ‘Diary’

Sunny Day Real Estate brought their 30 years of ‘Diary’ celebration to Saint Andrew’s Hall on September 26, and brought along Itchy Kitty from Spokane, WA.

 

 

ITCHY KITTY

 

 

 

Itchy Kitty was ferocious. We had not heard of them prior to those tour, but sometimes that’s the best case scenario because then you can experience the music and fall in love with it live. Their website describes Itchy Kitty as follows:

 

“They specialize in a hyperkinetic blend of punk traditionalism and a sort of mangled glam rock pageantry. Their music careens from whiplash inducing riffage to flash delirium freak outs. They’re fast, they’re loud, they’re the hardest working band in showbusiness™.”

 

We enjoyed their set and we think that some of our audience at ACRONYM ZINE would enjoy them, so we’re dropping their catalog here for your listening pleasure!

 

 

 

 

 

 

SUNNY DAY REAL ESTATE

 

 

 

 

Sunny Day Real Estate took the stage and immediately slid into the song “8” which was on the ‘Batman Forever’ Soundtrack — a surprise for hardcore fans. Then funneling into the billed affair, they began working their way through ‘Diary’ in full, sounding nearly identical to their original recordings. The band also has a remastered and expanded version of the album on Spotify, which includes the track from the ‘Batman Forever’ soundtrack, that way you can listen to it all in one grouping.

 

 

 

 

After performing fan favorites like “Seven,” “In Circles,” and “Song About An Angel,” and rounding out the end of the album, the band took a quick “encore” break before returning to the stage to play other songs from their expansive catalog which included the track “Pillars” from my personal favorite Sunny Day Real Estate album ‘How It Feels To Be Something On.’ After hearing that track, now I just want them to come back on a tour for that particular album because of how stellar they sounded.

 

Their play style was very technical but also was more about the music than it was about any banter. The band didn’t do much mic-talking beyond thanking the audience for being there, but given the sound of the band and how melancholy it can sometimes be, attendees should have the opportunity to get lost in their emotions rather than to have a band that feels they need to put talking spots on their setlist in between shows in a forced nature. Sometimes saying less is saying more, and allows the fans to emote and sing along. With that, we say we’d highly recommend seeing them live if you’re given a chance. One can only hope they come back someday very soon.