By Chris Schieman - writer 

Breaking out of the Vancouver suburbs is Langely’s own Goodbye Beatdown. 

You may remember Goodbye Beatdown when they last visited Edmonton, playing at MacEwan University before heading off to Jekyll and Hyde for their evening show. 

“That day was crazy,” said bassist Mark Luongo (and yes, he is related to Canadian Gold Medalist and Vancouver Canucks goalie Roberto Luongo). “We left Golden, B.C. really early in the morning to make it to Sonic for our Sonic Session. From there, we went to Grant MacEwan and did our set there. We then went and unloaded our gear at Jekyll and Hyde, had some dinner, and played our last show of the day. Just a crazy day.”

Edmonton isn’t the only city keeping these boys busy; after they won a radio promotion contest, Goodbye Beatdown are now a regular fixture being played on Vancouver’s CFOX radio station. 

“Some people say it’s weird to hear their own song on the radio. I just think that being in Canada, this sort of thing is much more accessible. CFOX have been absolutely amazing to us. I’m excited and honored that they have been this good to us. It reassures me that I’m on the right path.”

The success that Goodbye Beatdown has attained in Vancouver is impressive, especially seeing as they don’t see themselves as fitting into the Vancouver music mold. 

“That’s the cool thing about being from the suburbs. It’s really helped us discover our own sound without pressure from a local scene or a music industry. Especially seeing as we are five very different individuals with our own music backgrounds.”

Extremely different indeed, vocalist Dustin Overhill was a competitive battle MC before joining the band. Guitarist Sean Simpson (who is only 19 years old) was raised by a professional guitar player and had been playing Santana songs for most of his life. 

Drummer Brani Shibilev is a Bulgarian heavy metal drummer, and bassist Mark Luongo has had training in everything from jazz to classical to funk.

The end result of this mashing together of different styles and musicians is a dynamic band that fuses rock, hip hop and reggae in a way seldom heard in mainstream music today. 

“We have hip-hop influence, we’re rooted in rock and we got the reggae so people can dance,” explained Luongo.

Along with the B.C., Alberta, and Saskatchewan tour that will take the boys into June, the band is also working on their full length record and follow up to their 2009 EP WHATCHAGAWNDO? 

“We have nine new songs written so far, we’re working on another eight. The record is going to be about 11 tracks or so. We’ll be playing a lot of the new songs on March 19, though. They’re super high energy and really fun.”

Luongo and the rest of the band are super excited to be coming back up to Edmonton. 

“We’ve had nothing but good experiences whenever we come up here. Even when I toured with my old band up here everyone was really supportive and awesome. Edmonton’s definitely down with the groovy sound. You guys have a really west coast feel which is cool, but you have no ocean, so it’s kind of weird,” said Luongo.

To add to the massive support Edmonton has given these boys, the morning of March 19 they will be performing on Breakfast Television. 

“We were on Breakfast Television in Calgary last time we came through, it was really fun. So if anyone is interesting in hearing our sound live before the show, make sure to get up early and see us rock the CityTV news studio.”

Make sure to check out Goodbye Beatdown at the Pawnshop on March 19, and while you’re there, ask the bartender to make you the Goodbye Beatdown shot.

“Prevail from Swollen Members took us out to like a fancy five-star restaurant. He hopped behind the bar and started making us drinks and shots,” quips Luongo. “He invented the Goodbye Beatdown shot which is a mix of Jäger, Drambuie and cognac with a twist of lime.”

Prevail from Swollen Members invented a shot named after these guys?

This band is certainly going places and has a huge future ahead of them.

Who: Goodbye Beatdown

When: March 19 @ 9 p.m.

Where: Pawnshop