The Hives 17/04/2008

I had been looking forward to this for a little while, having seen The Hives at the V Festival in 2005 (only doing 30 minutes there though ) I knew they would be good.

First off, as usual, was a support act, Henry Fiat's Open Sore. They have something of an interesting image (especially as they list themselves on myspace as ' Christian Rap / Christian / Thrash') comprising of suits and what appear to be homemade gimp masks?! The effect was somewhat diminished by the large hole in the crotch of the singers trousers (I wasn't looking, honest! ), but helped create some wacky effects, such as the singer opening his eyes wide so all you could really make out of his face were these to bright white globes... Or the bassist sticking his tongue out and waggling for all he was worth - without a mouth to give them context tongues are very strange beasts! Musically they were a bit hardcore for me, and from what I could tell, most of the audience would have agreed... Still, got everyone nodding their heads and tapping their feet, and eager for the main show...

As The Hives' instruments were being set up it became clear they have taken the title of their latest album ('The Black And White Album') to heart - Everything except for the neon sign at the back was black and white, amps, drums, guitars, duck tape holding the microphones in place..! (once the drummer was on stage I also noted he had lots of pimpin' white drum sticks!) Also the amps had a nice touch - they had their owners names on them as opposed to the usual branding, and with names like Nicholaus Arson, Vigilante Carlstroem and Dr. Matt Destruction it looked good!

Finally, at about 9pm, the background music switched to 'A Stroll Through Hive Manor Corridors' - an instrumental for the new album which is quite odd and joins other songs on the new album that sound quite new and different from The Hive's usual sound. Crowd go wild, of course, possibly forgetting that the song is pretty long, as they give up after a minute or two! When the band do take the stage (all dressed to the nines in their special Black and white Album suits, of course) the crowd went crazy, and much pushing and shoving went on (one reason I don't like be RIGHT at the front at gigs - you get squashed to death!).

I always find it funny just how well those suits suit the music of The Hives, and there's something about their live show which fits too... It kind of makes you forget just how arrogant ol' Howling Pelle Almqvist is being! He often mentioned we weren't making enough noise for the Almighty Hives, and at one point threatened to destroy the crowd if we didn't make enough noise after 'the next song'! Another good example of the arrogance is in the song 'You Dress Up For Armageddon' (The song's chorus goes 'You dress up for Armageddon, and I'll dress up for the summer'), which was introduced by Pelle saying how The Hives will be around to play for 'the children of your children's children', and that 'the next song is about how there will only be 5 men from Sweden left alive after Armageddon'.

They kept everyone happy with all the classics from the latest three albums (I'm very disappointed they ignored their first album completely, just one song would have been awesome, especially had it been 'Blackjack', or 'A.K.A.I.D.I.O.T'...): 'Main Offender', 'Hate To Say I Told You So', 'Walk, Idiot, Walk', 'Tick, Tick, BOOM!' etc... The performance was full of energy from both the crowd and the band (who had ditched all their ties and jackets by half way through, unsurprisingly!), and kept up a fast pace, complete with Pelle climbing up on the speaker stacks at either side of the stage, for an hour or so, before they left the stage. The crowd were the most vociferous I've heard for a little while (Spunge were the last band to get that kind of volume, and they were playing to about 1/6 of the number of people), and there was barely a let up in the 'We want more' chants until the band returned one by one to the stage for a two song encore. I'll have to confess that I was quite pleased it was only two songs as by this tie I was completely knackered and in desperate need of a drink and a sit down!

All I can say is: I can't wait for the next album (as The Black And White Album bodes very well for their future, a real step forward into new territory), and accompanying tour!

Pictures are HERE. Sorry about the quality, but there wasn't much time for pictures, so be thankful there are ANY at all...