If you ask any male fan how they would describe Huntington Beach power pop band HelloGoodbye, only two words are necessary: “guilty pleasure.”
This college-aged band from southern California have infiltrated the punk rock scene with some of the most sugar coated guitar tracks since the days of The Go-Go’s and the mid-’80s girl rock explosion.
The difference is that for HelloGoodbye, rather than dwell on their childishly playful lyrics or abuse of Nintendo effects, their fans grasp the sense of legitimacy that surrounds the band at all times. It’s as if they are so over the top, they can only be doing it on purpose.
HelloGoodbye has never listened to anyone but themselves anyway. The band takes its cues from its nerdy yet oh so adorable front man Forrest Kline.
Over the years Kline has acted as songwriter, lyricist, guitarist, keyboardist, visual artist, producer, web site designer, merchandise maker, tour manager and just about anything else you can think of. HelloGoodbye’s work ethic has always been and largely remains Do-It-Yourself.
While still in high school and interning at his eventual label, Drive-Thru Records, Kline started HelloGoodbye as a basement project on his laptop in 2001 with a keyboard, a guitar, and a microphone.
As he began to write songs in hopes of wooing girls, and often just lamenting over said girls, Kline hooked up with his classmate Jesse Kurvink to record material and collaborate on new tunes such as Jesse’s invitation to his prom date entitled “Jesse Buy Nothing…Go To Prom Anyways.” While many of the songs were only intended for the entertainment of their friends, the duo found themselves in need of a band as they began to book local shows starting in 2002.
Since being signed to Drive-Thru in 2004, the band has solidified a line up with bassist Marcus Cole and drummer Chris Profeta. The release of their 2004 EP over the internet free of charge served as an excellent marketing tool in getting the band heard by Drive-Thru fans.
After touring relentlessly in support of the EP, the band finally took a break from the road in 2005 to record their new album “Zombies! Aliens! Vampires! Dinosaurs!” which was released on August 8, 2006. When HelloGoodbye stopped by Toad’s Place in New Haven on Saturday November 4, it marked only the second time the boys had made it to the northeast since the release of their newest album.
“Welcome to Emo 101” was Kurvink’s introduction to the crowd that night at Toad’s Place. Playful humor such as this abounds the characters that are HelloGoodbye, as emo is one of the last labels pertaining to these pop-rockers.
Certainly no one was there to cry their eyes out with the band (sorry Dashboard Confessional) but rather to partake in a non-stop dance party. The band was good, albeit unimpressive, but the crowd was what really brought the show down.
Toad’s Place did not have to worry about keeping track of who was old enough to drink but rather who was old enough to drive. With the main floor flooded with a sea of high school underclassmen, the back walls were lined with enduring parents.
Sixteen year old girls screamed as Kline shed unnecessary layers of clothing every few songs including a sports coat, a wool sweater, and a button down shirt, still remaining fully clothed by the end of it.
Why so unimpressive you ask? The over production of HelloGoodbye’s studio albums forces the four man band to either play to a track or rely on keyboard samples to reproduce their signature tracks.
This isn’t as over the top as a band such as Angels ‘ Airwaves (go see their “live” show for yourself), but it does take away from the live concert experience to see a band standing onstage, hearing music and seeing that no one is playing an instrument. Even so, their set was an entertaining combination of greatest hits that got the crowd jumping around like, well, teeny boppers.
With only an album and half of songs to choose from HelloGoodbye easily pleased its audience with old favorites “Call ‘n Return,” “Bonnie Taylor Shakedown,” “Shimmy Shimmy Quarter Turn” and “Dear Jamie…Sincerely Me.” They also made adequate use of some of their oldest songs that were rerecorded for “Zombies! Aliens! Vampires! Dinosaurs!” such as “All of Your Love,” “All Time Lows,” “Figures A and B (Means You and Me)” and “Two Weeks in Hawaii.”
These songs were great to hear live for the first time despite Kline forgetting many of the lyrics to “Hawaii.” With only five truly new songs to pull from their most recent album the band managed to play only three in their set: “Stuck To You,” “Baby, It’s Fact” and they closed with their current single “Here (In Your Arms),” a song more reminiscent of Enrique Iglesias and Cher than any of their pop-punk contemporaries.
Despite feeling like an old man wondering around a little league field and the band’s use of overdubbed keyboards, this show was fun and it definitely kept interest alive in seeing HelloGoodbye again, just maybe on a weekday next time when the kiddies are stuck at home.
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