May 31st, 2025 (Sunny Day Real Estate w/ Cloud Nothings @ Empire Live, Albany, NY)

It's taken me a second to write this review, a bit busy as of recently, but I'm finally getting around to writing this show review! This show is another one that I was very much excited for, and I bought tickets for it almost immediately once they came out! Sunny Day Real Estate have been one of my favorite bands ever since my best friend showed them to me several years ago. They are one of his favorite bands as well, and he saw them one time before in NYC, but now they were coming to Albany, which is quite close to where we live! I mean, I go to school in Albany, so it's not like it's all that far away from where I've been, and I've been to Empire Underground, which is the venue beneath Empire Live, so I was already very familiar with the area.

Me, my friend, and his girlfriend all showed up really early, literally before doors opened, so that we could get to the front without any trouble immediately. It was really awesome, but a REALLY long wait, since the show didn't start until 7:30, and we were there at 6pm...

The opener was Cloud Nothings, who I have heard of, and I knew they were quite good, so I expected that. They met the expectation! They weren't the best band I've seen live, but they were a nice mix of post-hardcore, alternative rock, and emo, similar to Sunny Day Real Estate but not exactly the same. One thing I will say is they were SO FUCKING LOUD. Like I had both earplugs in, and they were still soooooo loud. Like it was insane. My friend forgot to bring earplugs, so he had to raw dog it, and his girlfriend struggles putting earplugs in for some reason, so she also got her ears shot by that! Even my ears sounded that kind of watery thing they do after a concert with no earplugs in.

As I mentioned, Cloud Nothings were quite good, but they weren't completely outstanding. I quite enjoyed some instrumental segments, and the vocals was really solid, but they weren't the reason I was super excited for that night's show.

Sunny Day Real Estate were amazing! I was very excited to hear many of their songs live, and I knew they were going to kill it on stage. The band looked very happy to be back to be completely honest. They were smiling a lot at the beginning of the show performing, and they enjoyed the crowd's applause and cheers. They played a good mix of songs from their discography, even if I'm not the biggest fan of their final album before their hiatus, The Rising Tide I still think they picked a lot of crowd favorites, and some deep cuts that were really solid. I really enjoyed the big hitters obviously, such as "In Circles", "Seven", and "Pillars", but some other highlights had to be "Guitar and Video Games", which is a personal favorite of mine from their discography, and also one that genuinely made me emotional hearing live. It is a song that's meant a lot to me personally, and hearing it in person from the band was a massive highlight of the night for me. The other really cool moment in the show was "Pheurton Skeurto", which is a slower, less energetic piano ballad kind of interlude from their debut Diary, but they did a really interesting key change and more energetic ending to the song, which was awesome.

The band definitely still got it. The vocalist, Jeremy Enigk, sounds absolutely terrific, and it's insane that he can still sing that good live. William Goldsmith is the drummer of the band, and he's got to be one of the best drummers in the genre. I'm so glad he's still in the band, as he is such an essential part of why I love SDRE. He also was in Foo Fighters earlier in their career, which is pretty awesome, and he might even be the best drummer that the band has ever had... Dan Hoerner I believe is also an original member/early member of the band, and he's one of the guitarists. He seemed to really be enjoying the show lol. The other two members, the bassist and the rhythm guitarist/backup vocalist aren't original members, so I don't actually remember their names, but they did a good job filling in.

After they were done playing, the stage crew were giving away stuff such as the drumsticks, setlists, etc. I was going to get a setlist from one the stagehands, but they literally told me and some other guy to back off, and gave it to the very short girl who wasn't even in the front the entire time!!! Like, bitch, I got here early to see this band and stood in the front for several hours, and you're not even gonna give me a setlist??? They also gave some of the drums away too, and like, I wanted one but they gave one to my best friend instead. His girlfriend got one of the drumsticks, which I'm quite jealous of because I would love that! I will say, that even though I didn't get anything, I'm still fine with that and I enjoyed the show a lot regardless, but goddamn there was some guy who was SO annoying. He got one of the drums, and instead of being happy with getting something, he instead kept asking the stage crew if they could exchange it for a pick, and when they kept saying they didn't have one, he gave up. Just kidding, he decided to switch from asking them for picks and started asking if they could get the drummer to sign it!!!! Dude, the stage crew (who kept telling him repeatedly) don't have access to backroom with the band, and also, goddamn man, as cool as it would be to get him to sign it, you don't need to bother him and the crew to get a signature. Beggars genuinely can't be choosers in this situation!!! I didn't even get anything and I was still happy how the show turned out.

Since I was in the front, and the merch table was in the back, as you could imagine, the line for merch filled up very quickly. I probably should have got a shirt earlier in the show to be honest. I still ended up getting a shirt and everything, but it's a little big on me.

After the show, I spent the night at my friend's house and we had a good time hanging out before going to bed. This concert was really awesome, and I'm glad SDRE had a show so close to where I live!

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