Sunday night was Yom Kippur, the Jewish day of Atonement, which served as a somewhat poetic backdrop for “emo” pioneers Sunny Day Real Estate [MySpace], to confess and cast aside their past sins and join together once more as friends and band mates to perform at Terminal 5.

Unfortunately for me, Terminal 5, seems to have broken the greatest and most stead fast of all rock and roll rules and started the show exactly when the doors opened. As such I missed the bulk of The Jealous Sound’s set, which was upsetting considering they are a dear old favorite of mine. Although many people didn’t realize it, when seeing The Jealous Sound, you are seeing a “supergroup” albeit an obscure one. The band is made up of lead vocalist/guitarist Blair Shenhan (ex-Knapsack), guitarist Pedro Benito (Ex-Sunday’s Best) and drummer Adam Wade (ex- Jawbox and Shudder To Think). They delivered their usual high energy performance but were clearly overshadowed by the enormity of the Sunny Day reunion and weren’t granted much attention or applause.

After a brief respite, like 20 minutes, which anyone who has frequented any kind of show will tell you was really damn fast, Sunny Day Real Estate hit the stage with very little ceremony. The band simply walked out in steady increments. First came drummer William Goldsmith, then guitarists Jeremy Eniqk and Dan Horner and then lastly, as if planned, came the former holdout Bassist Nate Mendel. Before they kicked off their set, they were beseiged with applause and cat calls. Like many of my fellow audience members packed into Terminal 5, I only know the band from photos, books, a scant two records (with the original lineup) and a handful of videos, so to see the four of them on stage together live was truly awesome (as in the biblical sense, not just cool).

As we all were slowly coming out of our haze, those lazy opening chords to “Friday” rang throughout the building and an even louder cheer emerged. During their short three year existence (in this lineup), Sunny Day Real Estate didn’t give many interviews or do a lot of talking with the media. As such their personalities have remained somewhat of enigma. Often gossiped about but never truly proven The way we know them and the way they seem to prefer to be known is by their songs. The band did very little chatting other than to thank the audience for coming out. Instead they moved right into the material, which was so well known, that every chord or drum intro produced an instant recognition of the track.

The band primarily stuck to their first two albums, Diary and LP2, which was written while Mendel was still a member. However, they did make a brief stop over to play the fan favorite “Guitars and Video Games” from their third album, How It Feels To Be Something On. Also they reached all the way back to play “Spade and Parade” a song that was featured on an early 7 inch and the B-side to the “Seven” single.

Most important to Sunny Day Real Estate fans, is not so much how they sounded, which was great in case you were wondering, but the level of fun they had on stage. As many are aware Sunny Day Real Estate is notorious for being a compustable powder keg. Since in each one of their formations bearly make it past the three year mark. To put it simply, the band looked to be having a blast, especially guitarist Dan Horner, who broke the silence briefly to say, “Seeing all of you out there here for us is a dream come true”. That statement had an extra ring sincerity considering Horner has kept the lowest profile of all the Sunny Day Real Estate members. Watching Horner feed off the crowd has he played the dynamite ascending riff to “47″ smiling the whole while, can make your heart sing.

Photo Credit: Brooklyn Vegan

To the delight of everyone in attendance, we were graced with a new number, which the band has seemingly written on the road. There is no telling if this means the promise of more songs, new recordings or a lengthier reunion than March 1, 2010, when their Australian tour ends. Hopefully this time Sunny Day Real Estate are finally here to stay.

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