Hellogoodbye Concert Review
The band Hellogoodbye made their return to McAlester on Friday, March 28th at Downtown 312 as a part of the Dancing Rabbit Spotlight Series. Hellogoodbye first played here in June of 2023, headlining the Dancing Rabbit Music Festival. Playing in front of a packed Friday night crowd at Downtown 312, Hellogoodbye did an eclectic, high energy set that had the crowd on their feet all evening.
The set bounced back and forth between styles throughout the night, with a three-piece band that featured a drummer and two multi-instrumentalists who switched back and forth between electric and acoustic guitars, keyboards and sequencers. The band’s unique sound is hard to categorize. It is power pop that sounds like if Cheap Trick wrote music for late 80s video games. The show started off with only lead singer and primary songwriter Forrest Kline on acoustic guitar, doing a couple of songs that were reminiscent of Ed Sheeran. The rest of the band then joined for a set that featured several new songs Kline said would be on an upcoming album. The new material had a chamber pop sound that melded the hooky melodies of The Beach Boys with early 2000s bands like Panic! At the Disco. The band took a short break before returning to do a second set that got the crowd up and dancing with four-on-the-floor beats and heavy use of synths and sequencers that included an electronic dance cover of Smash Mouth’s “All Star” that Kline jokingly said he wrote. The night ended with crowd favorites like “Touchdown Turnaround” and “Honeymoon” that fused the pop rock of Weezer with the indie sound of Vampire Weekend.
Kline proved to be an instrumental virtuoso, playing lead guitar lines, fingerpicked acoustic guitar, keyboards and sequencers. Other times throughout the evening he grabbed the mic off the stand and went out in the crowd, dancing and singing with the audience. Kline was engaging with the crowd in the intimate venue, asking for requests and thanking those that travelled to McAlester to see the band. Several audience members decked out in Hellogoodbye t-shirts came to McAlester specifically to see the band and sang along to the band’s hits. As the set increased in intensity the crowd eased their way towards the front of the stage, dancing and singing along. Kline thanked the crowd for coming out and promised it would not be the last time they played in McAlester.
There is quite a bit of live music coming up this spring, including three shows at Spaceship Earth. Early James will bring his gothic, folk back to McAlester on Tuesday, April 8. Australian singer/songwriter Jordie Lane will perform on Wednesday, August 23 and Eddie9V will be here on Tuesday, April 29. The first of the Dancing Rabbit Music Festival’s summer concerts will be May 10 and feature Josh Hass and The Brush Poppers doing a set of classic rock, Van Full of Nuns playing your favorite pop punk hits and Nirvana cover band Smells Like Nirvana. Then on June 14, the second weekend of Dancing Rabbit Music Festival will feature singer/songwriter Joe Pug, hip hop artist Jabee, emo band Mae, and progressive rap group Flobots making their return to Dancing Rabbit. As always, Dancing Rabbit Music Festival is free of charge.