HELLO HOPELESS – The Boathouse (Kitchener Ontario, November 30 2018) with Another Crush, Pioneer Anomaly, and Antisocial Surf Club.
With a new CD in hand, Kitchener rock band Hello Hopeless introduced the Boathouse to a fistful of new songs in a velvet glove of rock.
Playing every song from their new EP Dark Pasts, Brighter Futures plus a couple oldies and covers, the threesome kicked ass from start to finish with nary a hiccup. The band were tight, proving that their performance on CD was no fluke.
Hello Hopeless tick several boxes: 1) Great stage presence and stage-worthy rapport. 2) Strong original songs. 3) Great vocalists. 4) Musical chops. 5) A clear love of what they do. With a Toronto gig on the horizon, the band are ready for the next jump.
Standout tracks included “Hurricane”, “The Match”, and acoustic ballad “Broke”. It was the first time “Broke” was played live, and its rawness was appealing. Singer Garrett Thomson poured everything into it, and it paid off. The set was otherwise upbeat, fast and fully electric. The band played a couple covers: “Mr. Brightside” by the Killers and “She’s Out of Her Mind” by Blink 182. Remarkably, their originals were much better than their covers.
Opening acts were Another Crush (Hamilton), Pioneer Anomaly (Toronto) and Antisocial Surf Club (Kitchener). Pioneer Anomaly suffered technical issues, including a downed mike stand during the first song. Fortunately a hero emerged from the audience as Max the Axe (he’s kind of a big deal) ran to the stage to fix the microphone so the band could finish the song! Max the Axe has earned the honorific title “Max the Roadie”. Max will be playing at the Boathouse next week, December 8, for his own CD release. Antisocial Surf Club were notable for a few catchy originals and covers though clearly aimed at a younger crowd than Max and I.
If Hello Hopeless come to your town, see them. If they keep playing gigs like this and writing quality originals, you will be hearing about them one way or the other.
5/5 stars
mikeladano.com 
Looks like a lot of fun.
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Dude, these guys were fantastic. I was hoping they would be. I kinda feel like I’ve been putting my money where my mouth is, writing about them so much. Seeing them live — they were levels above the other bands. Everyone saw and heard that.
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That is great. Glad they outperformed the other bands, that would have been bad if they didn’t.
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I was worried, Antisocial Surf Club were pretty good. But I thought HH were better, though I don’t want to hurt any feelings should they read this review.
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If they do read it, All I heard was that they were pretty good and that is good enough for me to know they were worth seeing.
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Sounds like a good time.
Your sister had one of her CD launch parties at the Boathouse.
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Well I can see why, the sound and visuals there are fantastic! Too strobe-y for my wife though.
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Would they be the type of band to put on the Bloodstock Wishlist?
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Bloodstock would probably kill them, but I was really impressed. So was Max the Axe and he doesn’t just throw around praise. He says he wants to gig with these guys.
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Maybe Download then.
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I like that velvet rock glove imagery!
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Thanks, it was cheesy but I had a hand theme going on there that I wanted to continue.
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Super-cool! Looking forward to seeing them play stadiums someday!
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I hope so. I really think these guys have something special.
Unfortunately we missed Another Crush, but I heard they were good, and they are hitting Guelph in March so I may check that out.
Trying to get out more.
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