The Hives, Born Lion @ 170 Russell, Melbourne (21/01/2014)
A black and white sheet, courtesy of The Hives, with a crazy-eyed puppeteer, made all the more erratic by the frantic lighting, was draped behind Sydney’s Born Lion as they gave the night an explosive launch. Musically, there is no denying that Born Lion is above decent, but there seemed to be a lack of thought when it comes to stage presence.
Besides it being rather douchey for an opening band drummer to come on stage topless, for a vocalist to yell out “Metallica” mid-song just to point that they bought a riff by the popular metal band, or to comment “insert applause here” (a comment often used by The Hives) after a song, the band did fit The Hives well stylistically, and thus were a fitting support. They managed to rouse a generous amount of the crowd with their slightly more punk looks and sound (think something like a slightly heavier version of The Hives combined with The Matches).
By the time The Hives graced the completely colourless stage, remaining ever so Swedish while wearing matching Mariachi suits, the venue was well and truly packed out. The energy put into making their live shows and stage setup entertaining has played an undeniable role in sustaining the band’s success over the years, and this was certainly the case on the night, with even their roadies wearing black ninja costumes complete with The Hives ‘H’ crests.
Following a pre-recorded off key version of 2001: A Space Odyssey (imagine the theme song... melting), which summed up the humour of the band perfectly, The Hives opened with the immensely catchy tracks ‘Come On!’ and ‘Main Offender’. Being the jokester he is, Pelle Almqvist began to tease at the following song, ‘Go Right Ahead’, something he developed a pattern of doing throughout the night amongst many other comical offerings. Some mentionable lines being– “I feel as if I’ve been shot out of a cannon. Boom!” and “I have this itch in the middle of my back, can you all scratch it?”"
The audience was the kind where a burly and slightly disoriented business man might spill half his beer on you while holding up both arms as he tries to, and succeeds in, gaining the attention of guitarist, Vigilante Carlstroem. It was also the kind of crowd where someone, rejoicing in Blur’s withdrawal from Big Day Out, might shout “fuck Blur!”, not realising the duality of his words due to their successful track ‘Song 2’ being a critique of the very music The Hives play.
Pelle stood above all of us, almost dictator-like, confiscating phones from their willing owners so they could, as he put it, "experience shit". He even called for a past half-way review where “100 is classic and 1 is sucks”, asking the crowd if they thought the night had been a 103, to which we all cheered without hesitation. The comical front-man evaluated the night later on as being more like “New Year’s Eve on Mars” than “a Tuesday night in Melbourne”. The band closed the greater part of their set with the 103-rated track (3 points above classic) ‘Hate to Say I Told You So’, only to return to the stage for a three song encore.
Returning with ‘Tick Tick Boom’, the band physically froze mid-song, and after a break allowed Pelle to tell a tonne more of his jokes. As they returned to song after a lengthy banter-filled break, the entire audience participated in (possibly) “Australia’s first ever sit down crowd surf”.
They ended the night with ‘Insane’ and ‘Patrolling Days’, by frequent request of the drunken businessman, leaving the final impression that The Hives can sure put on one hell of a show.
Nathan Fioritti
Besides it being rather douchey for an opening band drummer to come on stage topless, for a vocalist to yell out “Metallica” mid-song just to point that they bought a riff by the popular metal band, or to comment “insert applause here” (a comment often used by The Hives) after a song, the band did fit The Hives well stylistically, and thus were a fitting support. They managed to rouse a generous amount of the crowd with their slightly more punk looks and sound (think something like a slightly heavier version of The Hives combined with The Matches).
By the time The Hives graced the completely colourless stage, remaining ever so Swedish while wearing matching Mariachi suits, the venue was well and truly packed out. The energy put into making their live shows and stage setup entertaining has played an undeniable role in sustaining the band’s success over the years, and this was certainly the case on the night, with even their roadies wearing black ninja costumes complete with The Hives ‘H’ crests.
Following a pre-recorded off key version of 2001: A Space Odyssey (imagine the theme song... melting), which summed up the humour of the band perfectly, The Hives opened with the immensely catchy tracks ‘Come On!’ and ‘Main Offender’. Being the jokester he is, Pelle Almqvist began to tease at the following song, ‘Go Right Ahead’, something he developed a pattern of doing throughout the night amongst many other comical offerings. Some mentionable lines being– “I feel as if I’ve been shot out of a cannon. Boom!” and “I have this itch in the middle of my back, can you all scratch it?”"
The audience was the kind where a burly and slightly disoriented business man might spill half his beer on you while holding up both arms as he tries to, and succeeds in, gaining the attention of guitarist, Vigilante Carlstroem. It was also the kind of crowd where someone, rejoicing in Blur’s withdrawal from Big Day Out, might shout “fuck Blur!”, not realising the duality of his words due to their successful track ‘Song 2’ being a critique of the very music The Hives play.
Pelle stood above all of us, almost dictator-like, confiscating phones from their willing owners so they could, as he put it, "experience shit". He even called for a past half-way review where “100 is classic and 1 is sucks”, asking the crowd if they thought the night had been a 103, to which we all cheered without hesitation. The comical front-man evaluated the night later on as being more like “New Year’s Eve on Mars” than “a Tuesday night in Melbourne”. The band closed the greater part of their set with the 103-rated track (3 points above classic) ‘Hate to Say I Told You So’, only to return to the stage for a three song encore.
Returning with ‘Tick Tick Boom’, the band physically froze mid-song, and after a break allowed Pelle to tell a tonne more of his jokes. As they returned to song after a lengthy banter-filled break, the entire audience participated in (possibly) “Australia’s first ever sit down crowd surf”.
They ended the night with ‘Insane’ and ‘Patrolling Days’, by frequent request of the drunken businessman, leaving the final impression that The Hives can sure put on one hell of a show.
Nathan Fioritti