Metric & Hellogoodbye Make a Great Case for Openers

I hope you got to Madison Square Garden for the Paramore show early enough to see the opening acts.  It's hard to believe that just three months ago, I was within a few yards of Hellogoodbye in the backyard of an eyeglasses store, and last night I was hundreds of feet away in the nosebleeds of MSG.  (Tangent: The venue's new flying bridges are terrible.  The beachball-esque ceiling, which droops to the scoreboard in the center, is without a doubt, the Garden's most iconic feature, and now it's obscured by two monstrosities.  It's absolutely shocking to me that the architects would sacrifice that view to the tune of 430 more seats.)  While I'm sure the bridges also disrupt the room's acoustics, the sound mix for "...And Everything Becomes a Blur" was the muddiest I've heard in the building.  But perhaps there wasn't enough time to soundcheck properly, as it seemed every member in the band also had a keyboard in front of them.  "This is a kind-of old song," said Forrest Kline, gearing up "When We First Met" and the directing the audience to clap along for the pre-chorus.  They followed with "Swear You're in Love," which set up a pattern of injecting more sounds into the second verses of the tunes.  "This is an old song," explained Kline before "Here (in Your Arms)."  After so much avoidance, it was nice to see Forrest embracing his electro-pop past, employing a vocoder and deviating little from its recorded version, save for some sweet guitar licks in the second verse.  He shared vocal duties with the arena on the final chorus, the line "whispers, 'Hello, I've missed you quite terribly'" anything but a whisper.  For "Just Don't Let Go Just Don't," he grabbed his microphone, which was attached to a cable of blinking lights, and showed off some nerdy dance moves at the edge of the stage.  They finished the short set with their most recent album's title cut, "(Everything is) Debatable."  "I wish we could sit and chat all night," Kline remarked sincerely, and retreated backstage.

With an ebullient tide of distortion, Metric powered into "Black Sheep."  They may have been the middle act, but the band obviously set out to prove (and did) that they were capable of headlining the historic venue.  Emily Haines was an effervescent vision in her sparkly outfit, which gave way to a pair of shapely legs.  It's no secret how she stays in such fantastic shape.  The stage is her gym.  Never content just to stand still, she spent the entire concert hopping from foot to foot in an aerobic dance.  She was an absolute delight to watch, especially little things like pulling her microphone away to extend each "miiiiind" in "Youth Without Youth," or the tambourine theatrics to emphasize the crescendoes in "Help I'm Alive."  "Synthetica" was probably my favorite performance of the night, with Jimmy Shaw's clean guitar lines shining brightly until the dense layers all forged into a dizzying climax under the strobe lights.  I didn't want it to stop, but as it does on the album, the tune ended abruptly.  "Breathing Underwater" saw Emily jabbing her tambourine triumphantly into the sky to punctuate each "Is this my life?"  Haines strapped on a six-string to play rhythm on "Gold Guns Girls," and Shaw came center stage to rip into a soaring solo.  Metric finished their set by giving the hallowed arena some "Stadium Love."  "Thank you, Hayley!  Thank you, New York City!" shouted Emily as she left the stage, Jimmy's guitar still feeding back to mix with the cheers.  Yes, thank you, Hayley Williams, for picking such talented bands to open for you.

HELLOGOODBYE - 11.13.13 - MADISON SQUARE GARDEN (26 minutes, 11 seconds)

SET - 

...And Everything Becomes a Blur / When We First Met / Swear You're in Love / Here (in Your Arms) / Just Don't Let Go Just Don't / (Everything is) Debatable

METRIC - 11.13.13 - MADISON SQUARE GARDEN (38 minutes, 23 seconds)

SET -

Black Sheep / Youth Without Youth / Help I'm Alive / Synthetica / Breathing Underwater / Sick Muse / Gold Guns Girls / Stadium Love

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

Hellogoodbye Are "Getting Old"

I forfeited my ticket to Hellogoodbye last night to take care of some things around the apartment, but my friend Carrie went and snagged some pics.  The show was in the Marlin Room at Webster Hall, a dancefloor with capacity for 500. While the space was visually interesting, particularly the decorative wrought iron half-circle behind the stage that resembled a peacock's plume when hit with the multicolored lights, the sound quality left much to be desired.  Pounding bass for the first half of the set had my friend stuffing napkins in her lobes as makeshift earplugs.

Forrest Kline and the guys played a total of 49 minutes, a slim set that could have been beefed up by some older tunes, but it has become quite clear that Hellogoodbye are desperately trying to shed their Autotuned, electro-pop past.  Most songs were culled from their sophomore release, Would It Kill You?  They only reached as far back as Zombies! Aliens! Vampires! Dinosaurs! twice, for "Baby, It's Fact" and the encore.  The latter came after a 15-second break, with fans eagerly shouting song titles.  "No requests, please," sang Kline in Autotune, and eased into "Here (in Your Arms)" with the first chorus in half-time, which actually had some crowdmembers slow-dancing.

Hellogoodbye have grown up, or are "getting old" as one of their songs goes.  Forrest Kline is the only original HGB member left, and chief songwriter, so if you don't like the direction he's taking, as a fan, you can stop listening, or as a band member, you can quit, as ten previous ones have done.  Forrest mentioned he had a sore throat and would need help from the crowd to sing.  Everyone cheered delightedly, and he responded, "Okay, well, this is a new song, so just try to figure out where I'm going thematically."  Perhaps it's that my-way-or-the-highway attitude that scared away his past band members, but he's just so innocently likeable, especially when dancing like David Byrne to the new song, with its groovy bass and incessant disco hi-hat.

They also played "Swear You're in Love," which is featured on their Daytrotter session that dropped yesterday.  (For those of you who don't know, Daytrotter is a music subscription site where you pay a small fee for downloads of exclusive sessions by bands ranging from Kris Kristofferson to Naughty by Nature.  Hellogoodbye are even the A side of the latest Daytrotter vinyl split.  You can sign up for Daytrotter here for only $2 a month!)  Both tunes will likely find their way onto HGB's next album, which is slated for an April 2013 release.

Forrest said he was heading to Idle Hands after the show to play a few more songs, so hopefully he wasn't too hoarse.  And hopefully people weren't talking too loud like they were for Brandon Reilly.

HELLOGOODBYE - 11.29.12 - THE MARLIN ROOM AT WEBSTER HALL (49 minutes) 

SET-
When We First Kissed / Finding Something to Do / Getting Old / Baby, It's Fact / Dammit (tease) / Coppertone / There's Nothing Else That Seems to Be as True* / You Sleep Alone / The Thoughts That Give Me the Creeps / Swear You're in Love / When We First Met

ENCORE -
Here (in Your Arms)