The Hives 5/15/08

All the way from Sweden to give us a rock show came the quintuplet.  Thanks for making the trip guys.  If you don't know this band, they have a kind of retro-punk sound and very short songs that they readily drive straight into your face.  For a band that formed in the early 90s and gained mediocre fame in the early 2000s, I don't think it would have mattered if they were playing in front of 5 or 5 million people, they are going to perform all the same.  They couldn't quite sell out Center Stage but those empty seats didn't seem to bother them.  The Hives came on stage in their signature black with white trim suits and band emblem crests with black and white striped ties wearing solid white shoes.  Sound pretty geeky?  You should see them move.  Front man Howlin' Pelle Almqvist never stopped Jagger-ishly gyrating the entire show and in between songs comically talked and hyped up the crowd with his confident but not over-bearing attitude.  He didn't play an instrument on stage unless you count his microphone and stand as such -- which I do.  Dipping the mike-stand and tugging the cord just before it hit the ground and bringing it back to sing the next verse just in time, twirling the microphone, leaving it teetering back and forth behind him while singing all seemed second nature to the man.  Very gracious leader indeed.  He never missed an opportunity to touch hands with the people crammed at the front of the stage and at one point got in the crowd on the side and climbed up on a guard rail to belt it out for a few seconds.  I think he knew what he was supposed to do in life a long time ago, lucky bastard.  He wasn't alone, though.  Lead guitarist Nicholaus Arson was just as energetic and erratic as his counter-part.  Their techs had a hell of a time keeping the two of them untangled from the mike and guitar cables which were being whipped around behind them.  At one point, he dropped the stand with the mike attached into the crowd and it was caught by some fans that screeched into it after Howlin' Pelle gave them a "go ahead, its OK" wink and whipped it back into his hand which he caught as if he knew what was going to happen ahead of time...  Really cool.  Luckily, the rhythm guitarist and bass players didn't move around much at all or it would have been too chaotic to keep up with.  I only know their radio hits like "Hate to Say I Told You So" and "Main Offender" but I still say one of their best is the newest single "Tick, Tick, Boom" which is also very fun to watch them perform.  One thing about the performance, I wish they had a better light show.  What they had (and it could be the venue's fault) didn't have the same energy as the band.  I would be willing to bet they never headline a venue bigger than the Tabernacle, if that, and that's OK.  But not for lack of trying.  If you're ever in the mood for an inexpensive rock spectacle, look these guys up.