Over the last months, Hoobastank have become huge in Europe with their hit song “The Reason.” This song has been played almost to boredom on TV and radio stations. Hoobastank has been around since the early 1990/s, and they were playing a sold-out show in Oslo (John Dee) this week.
They came out and took the stage, the guitarist Dan Estiin and bassist Markku Lappalainen, respectively, in front of their full-stack amplifiers, and drummer Chris Hesse hidden in the back. They looked like they always do… dressed in t-shirts and jeans, and they were wearing big smiles on their faces. They looked like really cool down-to-earth guys.
“How are you Oslo? Let me see you fucking jump!” was the opening message, and from there singer Doug Robb sang briefly, and basically jumped around, headbanged and threw his arms all over the place the whole set. The band literally rocked the place. The packed crowd grew more and more excited with every song, and the band was flawless.
They rocked through hits from their resent album The Reason, but they also played a couple of old hits like, “Running Away” and “Remember Me.” The ultimate highlight was this summer’s big hit “The Reason”… almost everyone was singing along. They played intensely for over an hour, and they delivered good rock music with raw emotional lyrics. The crowd sang along every word, and everyone seemed to have an awesome time seeing Hoobastank perform.
The whole place was dancing and bouncing, and the atmosphere and enthusiasm among the crowd was high. There were happy faces everywhere. Doug, the enthusiastic front man, did all in his power to please his fans, and he succeeded. The awesome part of the show, for the female audience anyway, was when Doug took off his shirt and the band played their version of “Girls Just Want To Have Fun.” His voice on this song was great, and he nailed that high pitch voice of his.
They played what seemed like an eternity, and the energy never stopped. The band was very tight, and had the crowd at their disposal, roaring with each new song. The singer did this extremely hilarious dance the majority of the time, basically jumping in place with a lot of arms waving.
This is a great live band for anyone who wants to see quality music performed by quality musicians. It was so worth checking them out. The expectations were high for these guys, and they delivered on every level. Doug’s vocals were perfect, the drums were much heavier than the album suggests, and the bass and guitars sounded extremely tight. The only thing that lacked was a variety in their songs. Anyways, still a killer set.
Hoobastank have played live in Norway once before at the Quart Festival in 2002. At that time, they were not so well known here, but these guys have been all over and touring like crazy and have really been rocking the crowds. This is maybe part of the reason they have been so successful.
Hoobastank is one of those bands that are so much better live. They were providing a good performance, which maybe lacked the killer touch, but they suddenly proved to be stage favorite among all the fans which were digging them through the whole concert.
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