Real Estate @ The Ritz, Manchester, 28 Jun

“I'm gonna level with you Manchester, lots of tickets left for tonight's show at The Ritz. Come fill the big hall...”

Full marks to the custodian of Real Estate’s Twitter account for honesty; the 1500-capacity Ritz is a comically-oversized venue for a band of their stature, and accordingly, the upper echelons of the old concert hall are closed off tonight as the New Jersey outfit begin to bring the curtain down on this latest European jaunt with its penultimate show.

They’re here in support of their latest full-length, March’s In Mind, a record that couldn’t have sounded more Real Estate if it had tried; jangling guitars, hushed vocals and a generally mellow atmosphere all present and correct. It was, in and of itself, a disappointing step in the wrong direction set against its predecessor, Atlas, which seemed to have the group moving in a more emotionally literate direction.

Still, they’ve already quite the back catalogue to dip into these days, even without founding guitarist Matt Mondanile, who took his leave to focus on his Ducktails solo project back in May of last year. They’re on relaxed form, too, with the banter flowing far more easily than it has on previous visits to Manchester and the setlist a career-spanning affair.

We get eight new cuts, ranging from the utterly pedestrian likes of Serve the Song and Saturday all the way to the achingly gorgeous Two Arrows, and a healthy chunk of older material; Days big hitters Green Aisles and It’s Real please the crowd, but it’s the dainty Atlas turns Talking Backwards and The Bend that really steal the show.

Real Estate have never been a band that have struck anybody as being massively comfortable with having to perform to anybody in any capacity, but tonight’s breezy affair suggests that they might finally be getting there.