Sep 21

Sep 21 Show Review: Hellogoodbye Bring "Would It Kill You?" Album Celebration to Sacramento

Hellogoodbye
w/ Early Eyes, Limbeck
September 15th, 2021
Holy Diver
Sacramento, CA

Photos and review by Jared Stossel

Hellogoodbye have been around the alternative music scene for as long as I can remember. Whether it was back in 2007 when they were releasing neon-pop-rock EPs with songs like “Shimmy Shimmy Quarter Turn”, or back in 2013 when they were touring off of alternative rock albums like Would It Kill You? And Everything Is Debatable. They’ve come far in their career, even with lead vocalist Forrest Kline acting as the only recurring member on every release. I believe the last time I saw the band was in 2013 or 2014, when they were opening up for Paramore on their arena tour.

This time around, I headed over to Holy Diver, a rock venue nestled in Sacramento’s midtown, to catch the band on their most recent headlining run. After two highly exceptional opening sets from acoustic duo Limbeck and up-and-coming Epitaph signees Early Eyes, Hellgoodbye took the stage for nearly an hour and a half, kicking off their set with a full playthrough of their 2010 album, Would It Kill You?. The four-piece band then plunged into a medley of tracks from throughout their career, beginning with their fan-favorite hit “Here (In Your Arms), immediately conjuring up images of MySpace home pages, young love, and the neon clothing that permeated the scene in the early 2000s.

There’s a distinct change in Hellogoodbye’s style after the release of their 2008 album Zombies! Aliens! Vampies! Dinosaurs!, which included “Here (In Your Arms). Would It Kill You? marked a noticeable departure from the synthesizer-infused stylings of their previous work, ushering in the beginning of a new indie rock era for the band. Generally, when a band makes this kind of change, they immediately begin to disavow their older work, barely acknowledging its existence in a live setting. Hellogoodbye know that their audience love the old as much as the new, and with a flick of a switch, Kline’s microphone is brimming with autotune, with the band trading their guitars for synthesizers. It was fun to watch the band seamlessly switch between eras, sometimes at a moments’ notice.

When the lights went up inside of Holy Diver, the band had departed for the merch table. This wasn’t satisfying for the fans in attendance, who managed to get Kline to return to the stage for a number of fan-requested acoustic tracks. The room was illuminated with strings lights that Kline had tossed into the crowd earlier on during the show, creating a perfectly intimate atmosphere. Four songs later, Hellogoodbye’s unplanned encore came to an end. It’s clear that this band have created something special, carving out their own niche within the alternative rock community. For a band that has managed to shift between several genres over the years, it seems like they’ve finally found their own identity in this world, by embracing the music they’re making now, as well as the music that got them to where they were in the first place.

Hellogoodbye Set List
Would It Kill You?
Finding Something To Do
Getting Old
When We First Met
Betrayed By Bones
You Sleep Alone
When We First Kissed
The Thoughts That Give Me The Creeps
I Never Can Relax
Coppertone
Would It Kill You?
Something You Misplaced

Here (In Your Arms)
Just Don’t Let Go Just Don’t
S’Only Natural
(Everything Is) Debatable
Baby, It’s Fact
Touchdown Turnarond (Don’t Give Up On Me)