Live Review

Hellogoodbye – Monto Water Rats, London

• 9th Jun 2011

A sold out, sweaty ex-theatre, with a band bringing back memories of 2004, let down by poor sound and no cooling system.
Don’t get me wrong, I love sweaty gigs, that’s the whole point of them, I just don’t get sold out gigs in the middle of a heatwave with nowhere to move and basically making it worse than a claustrophobic sauna.

Moan about the sweat box over, the old theatre always makes for a good atmosphere. The Dangerous Summer, the support for the show, are a band I’ve heard so much about, how they’re ‘up and coming’ and ‘the next best thing’, and I thought I knew what I expected. I was wrong (and it’s not often I admit that). With people trying to see as the room was so full, and badly laid out, a few superfans in that knew all the words, yet a seemingly poor, sounds like it was from their garage, lifeless performance. Ok, it’s not the bands fault the sound in the venue was atrocious, the feedback from the mics continuous because there wasn’t enough room on the stage, but all in all I was highly disappointed.

With high expectations and surprise at quite how small the venue was for an Academy 1, Radio 1 sell out band, the anticipation for Hellogoodbye was high. And they didn’t really disappoint. The same issues as the band before, and too many members in the band to fit on the stage but it was a hilarious set. Plenty of banter with English member Andy Richards, who seemingly had a few friends or fans in the audience, and between members, it was like one giant nerd fest, one where you’re not sure whether you’re laughing with or at them. Plenty of the new ‘indie’ album, a couple off their best selling album, and thankfully a few stunners off their EP, it was a set worth the misery, and each song was brilliant. The humour was exceptional, the connection with the audience was fantastic and the feeling afterwards was a massive high, I guess the highs outweighed the lows with this one!