By JACKSON WANG
Executive Editor
You say hello, I say goodbye- Hellogoodbye.
The indie pop band from Huntington Beach, Calif. will be headlining this year’s Rose Rock, according to Patrick Burke, student association director of social activities.
“Everything is set in stone for them to come and perform at the College,” said Burke, who’s in charge of organizing the annual spring concert, which takes place on the campus quad on April 26.
Saint Rose and the agent of Hellogoodbye both agreed to terms on the contract last week. Burke said a bid was put in for the band about a month ago.
“It’s been going back and forth between our booking agent and talking with them in terms of agreement of the College and placing in a bid,” Burke said. “And after everything was agreed on, we had to go back and forth with Student Affairs and human resources here at the College in order to make sure the band is adhering to our rules and regulations.”
Hellogoodbye started as a band in 2001. Since then, it has recorded three albums: Zombies! Aliens! Vampires! Dinosaurs! in 2006, Would It Kill You in 2010, and Everything Is Debatable in 2013. Hellogoodbye has also released multiple EP’s and singles in its career. Its current members are Forrest Kline, Augustine Rampolla, Andrew Richards, and Michael Garzon.
The search process for this year’s headliner began back in September when the College hired booking agent Christopher Barber to find bands that were in Saint Rose’s price range and could perform in late April.
Burke would not say how much it cost to book Hellogoodbye.
“From there he would give me lists 60 bands and that was the first list that came out,” Burke said.
Once that list was released, students began to vote as the potential performers began to slowly dwindle. After each voting round, Burke said they would contact Barber to make sure all the bands remaining on the list were still available. Burke said he wanted to make sure students were going to vote for a band that had a chance of coming to Rose Rock.
“When it came down to the final four, we had acknowledged to all four of those bands that the College is interested,” Burke said.
After the student voting process on the final four bands was complete, Ying Yang Twins finished at the top. But Saint Rose recommended that Burke not book the duo after one of its members was arrested for allegedly beating his wife.
Then Burke said they looked at the students’ second top choice, which was Bowling For Soup. But that was shot down after Barber told Burke that there was a miscommunication between him and the agent of Bowling For Soup.
After having no luck with booking the second option, Burke tried Hellogoodbye, which was successful.
“We did run into a few problems, but we worked through them to bump up one of those top four bands and that was one of my goals was to make sure we did not skip out on one of those four bands students were promised,” Burke said.
Now that a band is booked for Rose Rock, the next task for Burke is finding a local band to fill in one remaining slot. Burke said he’ll listen to demos later this week and will then make a decision. Saint Rose student Bryan Jay will also be performing at Rose Rock.
The stage for the show will remain in the same location as last year. It will be kept at an angle facing the campus quad. Also, the sound set up will also remain the same.
“Sounds hasn’t been an issue in previous years and we look to continue that with the bands that perform,” Burke said.
The food will also be served on the campus quad again. The dining hall will be serving the food in a buffet style. Fried dough will also be making a return to this year’s Rose Rock as well.
“We want to work to keep the food down in the tent where the students can stay and listen to the music, go relax on the green, and have lunch,” Burke said, who’s also giving this year’s Rose Rock a Woodstock theme.
“I’m excited for students to enjoy the performances,” Burke said. “I think that will be the most joy of the day is to see the turnout of the students and with the bands and the performances.”
