Hellogoodbye Announces Album Release Date in a Backyard in Brooklyn

It was a gorgeous day in New York City.  I started mine by going to Summer Streets to experience Rafael Lozano-Hemmer's insanely disappointing Voice Tunnel, but thankfully, it only got better from there.  After savoring a concrete from Shake Shack, I headed back to Brooklyn to see a concert in the backyard of Moscot Gallery.  At first, the boutique eyeglasses shop seemed an odd place for a show, but it was somehow the perfect fit for Forrest Kline, the bespectacled frontman of Hellogoodbye.  "Hi. How are you guys?" Kline asked the fans, packed tightly in the pebbly space, slightly larger than my bedroom.  "I've got a setlist in my phone... kind of," he said, and then started strumming "Getting Old" on his acoustic guitar.  Either the crowd was just extremely polite, or the intimacy of the close quarters forced them to be.  I saw some lips moving, but the only voice I heard was Kline's ringing sweetly through the PA.  Forrest even found it intimate enough to share some "deep, dark secrets," like that he allows his dog to eat his nail clippings.

The third Hellogoodbye record has been cryptically advertised as a "Fall 2013" release, but Kline finally confirmed it for October 29th.  His excitement for the new songs was palpable, smiles sneaking out to fill the spaces between lyrics on "The Magic Hour is Now" and "Everything Becomes a Blur."  After a fun "Finding Something to Do," which saw him supplying the "oh oh oh" backup vocals himself, he moved on to a cover of "My Favorite Things."  When he reached a line about "freshly baked pizzas," it became clear he was adapting it to include his actual faves.  "I made that one my own.  I think that's a good songwriting exercise you could do with your child, to have them rewrite that song.  Someone should blog or Pinterest that.  I'll wait while you pin it," he joked, plugging in his Gibson hollowbody for another new tune, which I'll refer to as "Arbitrary Line Dance."  It shared quite a bit of notes with Band of Horses' "The Funeral," but the lyrics were 100% Forrest.  "I thought it'd be nice if something existed here that doesn't exist anywhere else," he said, offering up "It's Never Gonna Stop," a work-in-progress performed exclusively for the backyard audience.  When he announced that he was doing one more song, you could feel everyone in the crowd hoping it was a bluff.  He chose "When We First Met," which is my favorite, so I couldn't complain.  Every Hellogoodbye show seems to end too soon.  Leave them wanting more, I suppose.  It worked.  I want that new LP.

HELLOGOODBYE - 08.17.13 - MOSCOT GALLERY (28 minutes, 30 seconds)

SET -
Getting Old / The Magic Hour is Now* / Everything Becomes a Blur* / Finding Something to Do / My Favorite Things / Arbitrary Line Dance* / It's Never Gonna Stop* / When We First Met