I have been a failure at reviewing some of the live shows I went to around this year's ACL, I think I got behind on the preparation for the Festival and so I failed to get these together. I may not give much data on some of these, but I wanted to make sure to review this show because it was so perfectly amazing.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VKuQGo2iXx0 [damn website won't let me embed right now, but you can see there what it looked like as he talked up the crowd and goofed around]The Hives are not a household name. The band name honestly sounds kinda gross. But they are a Swedish garage rock band who I loved back in around 2002 or 2003 or 2004, when I had one of their CDs and would jam it all the time in my sweet diesel Jetta as I cruised around Waco. Sort of White Stripes vibes? Well, the reason that this show was so fun was two-fold: the lead singer hamming it up like crazy, and the unhinged and joyful power of the songs themselves. The lead singer, Howlin' Pelle Almqvist, stalked around the stage, swinging the microphone by its chord frequently, saying weird ass pronouncements like "The Hives are your favorite band" or "You have never seen a show so powerful before" in a great accent. The stage decoration and lighting was extremely basic, but his antics made it feel like there was a fun show going on up there. And the tunes freaking jammed - it's not smart stuff, you aren't at a Decemberists show here - but they were fast and loud and catchy as hell. I took a friend who had never even heard of them before and he loved the show. Great times, I would absolutely go again.
