Hellogoodbye, 01.06.2011

HEY THURRRR!
So, I had my last proper exam today, and by 'proper', I mean revisable - the last 2 are German reading and listening. [It's not like I'm taking German next year or anything! ...oh wait.] But anyway, this means that I can start posting more often. Woohoo.
This is an extremely belated review of the Hellogoodbye concert I went to with my friend on 1st June, so if you're not a fan of Hellogoodbye... read every other word? That could be fun, if you like that kinda thing. Regardless of what you plan on doing, I'll carry on:

The excitement began at about 12.00, when I stopped revising for my R.E exam and looked for something to wear. I then waited for my friend to arrive at my house in eager anticipation, while working my way through the unsurprisingly limited Hellogoodbye discography [this includes demos, covers and live versions, cos I'm a fangirl] THREE HOURS LATER, my friend arrived and we left about 45 minutes after that.
The journey itself wasn't that interesting. We got the bus to Slough, then the train to London Paddington, then the Hammersmith & City tube line to King's Cross. I remember it being fun, but that's pretty much because all we did was sing 'My Life As A Dickhead' and have conversations that would most likely mean nothing to anybody apart from my friend and I.

I love taking pictures of people sleeping on trains - oh the lols.

I guess the journey got slightly more interesting when I discovered that I can't read maps and walked in the totally wrong direction... twice. We got there in the end though! At 6.55pm my friend and I arrived, flustered, yet still unfathomably excited, at Monto Water Rats. The doors were supposed to open at 7.00pm, but we found ourselves waiting for a further fifty minutes outside the miniscule "theatre". Needless to say, we were pretty bored, so we entertained ourselves by watching a couple in the queue, consisting of a really clingy, not very attractive, touchy-feely guy and his seemingly uninterested girlfriend. He gravitated toward her, but she seemed to be unable to look him in the eye. I found myself creating a mini soap opera in my head, consisting of the story of this couple alone. But enough about that.
When we entered the venue, we discovered just how spectacular it was. In reality, it was a pub with a stage. Not only was it adorably intimate though, it also had really quirky additions to it, like columns on either side of the stage and four half-broken chandeliers hanging limply from the ceilings - I fell in love with the destructed beauty that existed in this tiny, unnoticeable building. Possibly the best part of it, though, were the coloured stage lighting, which were clearly stolen from a wedding DJ or school disco. They really added to the £12.00 ticket atmosphere, and it was great.

Standard broken chandelier. SO AWESOME.

Before we knew it, the first support band were on stage: Gold Motel. I'd never heard of them, but I trusted Hellogoodbye's taste in music and so gave them a chance. A sweet blonde-haired girl, Greta Morgan, fronted the band and she had a beautiful voice. The melody behind her honey-toned vocals were summery and fun, which was ideal for the support to an ex-powerpop band.

Matt Minx, Gold Motel bassist

Greta & Dan of Gold Motel

After they finished performing, they went offstage and Greta stood at the Gold Motel merch desk. I had a nice little chinwag with her and got their album for a fiver - HALF PRICE WIN! I didn't take any videos of their performances, because I didn't expect to enjoy them as much as I did, so I'll just give a link from YouTube to their song 'Safe In LA'

Once everybody had refreshed themselves sufficiently and had returned to the standing area, the next band arrived on stage: The Dangerous Summer. After hearing the floating-on-air sound of Gold Motel, I was pretty shocked to discover that The Dangerous Summer were, well, sort of emo-ish. I wasn't disappointed, just surprised. The truth is, it seemed to me like their soundcheck didn't go right or something, because the vocals were completely overpowered by the guitar and drums, which kinda sucked. It was a tsunami to my ears - a drowning mess of noise. However, I felt that this was a mistake on the soundcheck's part, and not just blatant talentlessness, so I gave a couple of their songs a listen afterwards. I was right, they're pretty good. My friend liked them because the bassist looked like the YouTube celebrity WheezyWaiter [see?! It's not just me who's obsessed!] and she "wanted to give the drummer a cuddle." I couldn't judge her for that statement - he was cute and nobody can deny a good cuddle.

The Dangerous Summer [Wheezy's on the left!]

 You wanna hear this cuddly drummer's skills? Here you go! This is called 'The Permanent Rain' and is their most popular song on YouTube.

By this point, we knew what was coming next and, boy, were we excited? The suspense was killing us and we barely managed to contain it by singing along to Marvin Gaye's 'Heard It Through The Grapevine' with a couple of lanky, pretentious guys who didn't look like Hellogoodbye fans in any shape or form. I was in the middle of giving a heart-wrenching speech about how I had been "waiting for five years for this day" when Forrest Kline, Hellogoodbye's well-loved lead vocalist and songwriter, sauntered onto the stage. My jaw dropped and a whimper fell out of my mouth. Alas, they were only soundchecking, simply adding to the aforementioned suspense.

 Suddenly, he grabbed the microphone and began introducing himself, which was pretty pointless really, as the screams from the female-dominated audience made him virtually inaudible.
He said, "So, this is a new song" and the band began playing 'Finding Something To Do', to which my friend and I danced and screamed and sang very loudly and probably looked incredibly unattractive in the process [this is one of 'our songs' y'see]
This here is 'When We First Kissed':

There was a mix of songs from their latest album, 'Would It Kill You?' as well as tracks from their first album, 'Zombies! Aliens! Vampires! Dinosaurs!' and even one song from early demos and LPs, the reasonably well-known 'Dear Jamie... Sincerely Me', which you can see below:

With every song they played, I would roar, "OHMYGODILOVETHISSONG!" and begin dancing like an epileptic ape or filming with as steady a hand as I could manage in this exciting situation.

Rocking out... or something like that.

Their performances were energetic and Forrest's voice was incredibly impressive, so neither my friend nor I was disappointed. Not only were they talented musicians, but their banter between songs was the best that I had experienced at any concert I had been to. The entire band took advantage of the small venue and interacted with the audience as much as possible, talking about the rapture, telling funny stories about tranny children and even promoting You Me At Six, who had performed at Westfield Shopping Mall that day. They asked who had been to see YM@6 that day, to which one boy put up his hand. I tried to shout, "My friend was there!" but my voice had been so brutally destroyed from shrieking along to their songs that he couldn't hear my properly. When Forrest assumed that I had gone, I tried to correct him, but then he mistook my "No, my friend!" for "No, I'm a guy!" Hilarity ensued, and in the end, I became an 'older gentleman.'
This is one of the more popular Hellogoodbye songs, 'When We First Met':

Both my friend and I had an absolute ball at the concert, and were beyond pleased when Hellogoodbye returned to the stage for an encore for at least 180 solid seconds of "WE WANT MORE." And what did they perform? 'Here (In Your Arms)' of course! It was even better than I had imagined, as you could see and hear the excitement erupting throughout the crowd and spilling over the stage. The whole band were visibly enjoying the performance and made the most of the time they had left onstage, jumping and some of them even crawling around.

Overall, Hellogoodbye were an absolutely spectacular live band and I was most definitely not disappointed by the night. The venue, the support acts and the whole Hellogoodbye crew were really fun and it was a shame that I couldn't wait around at the end and meet them. I left with a Hellogoodbye poster, a Gold Motel album and a massive smile on my face. Next time Hellogoodbye are in England, I'm definitely seeing them again.


If you weren't here for the review, then I hope you enjoyed the subliminal message I placed between the lines [just kidding, but see if you can find one anyway if you really want]
Here's the picture that I'm sure you've been shaking with anticipation for a fortnight for:

See yaaaa.
x,.