Last Saturday evening, after a day full of shopping and eating, I witnessed one of the greatest live acts of our time: The Hives. I'm sure many of you have heard of this swedish punk band, and probably know how completely full of themselves they are, but after seeing them control the crowd at the Kool Haus on saturday any discontempt i had toward this band was gone.
They are full of themselves, they are cocky, and they do have attitude, but, probably due to their boyishness and swedish accents, it comes off charming and fun. Vocalist Hollin' Pelle, being the Mick Jagger clone he is, pranced around the stage and threw his microphone up in the air so many times during the show that you have to give him credit for not missing a cue (or missing the mic!)
The highligh of the evening would have to have been when Howlin' Pelle taught everyone how to spell the hives by use of word association. He at one point said, "They say that we are good because I have the audience in the palm of my hand". There was not one thing that he told the crowd to do that they didn't do.
I have never seen a punk band contect with the crowd as much as the hives did. Punk shows are often full of energy and sweat, but this one just reaked of it. The enrgy going through that room was absolutly electrifying. I'm the kind of fan that sits in the back and just nod my head, but this show struck something in me and I was at full force in the little bit of a mosh pit there was.
Now, if the Hives were able to lengthen their set (40min includ. 3 song encore) then they will take over the world easily. Although I guess with that much energy, a 40 min set isn't that bad.
This is what ROCK & ROLL is all about! |
