Sunny Day Real Estate tour cements reunion with North American dates

More than a decade after the original lineup of influential indie rock group Sunny Day Real Estate split, the band is back with plans for a fall reunion tour and coinciding album reissues. The 21-city tour launches September 17 at Commodore Ballroom in Vancouver, BC, and ends October 16 at Paramount Theatre in band’s native Seattle, WA.

Highlights of the four-week tour include a September 21 concert at Ogden Theatre in Denver, CO, a September 27 show at Terminal 5 in New York, NY, and an October 11 gig at the Music Box in Los Angeles, CA. The tour’s opening night is currently the only performance booked for Canada.

SDRE’s original frontman Jeremy Enigk, guitarist Dan Hoerner, drummer William Goldsmith and bassist Nate Mendel were active only briefly in the mid-1990s. During those years, though, the group pioneered new ground in alternative rock and produced the highly regarded albums “Diary” (1994) and “Sunny Day Real Estate” (released by the label as “LP2” in 1995) before disbanding due to tensions within the group.

The group briefly reunited a couple years later in 1997, without Mendel, and released two more albums before disbanding once again in 2001. During the band’s various breaks, Enigk pursued a solo career and scored soundtracks for a couple films, while Goldsmith and Mendel signed on with Dave Grohl’s Foo Fighters, of which Mendel remains an active member.

Though there is no word on plans for new material, SDRE will celebrate its reunion by reissuing its first two albums on September 15. The remastered albums will include bonus tracks and rewritten liner notes.

“I wasn’t around for the second version of the band that recorded the 3rd and 4th albums, so I’ve always had a feeling of unfinished business there,” Mendel was quoted by the band’s former record label, Sub Pop. “We had all these out-sized ideas back then, ‘Everyone’s going to learn a new instrument,’ and ‘Let’s do a rock opera,’ but before we could get anywhere with them, the band broke up. We left behind all these weird and beautiful songs, though, and they’ve stuck with me all this time. I’m really happy that we get a chance to play them together again.”

The tour’s setlist will predominantly draw on material from the reissued discs. Ticket presales for most concerts will begin on June 26, followed by public onsales on June 27, according to Ticketmaster.

Sunny Day Real Estate itinerary:
(Dates are subject to change.)