The Hives… Live!

Well, as most of you know, Ashley and I went down to Nashville to the Wildhorse Saloon to watch The Hives this past weekend. I was excited about it, as I had always wanted to see The Hives live and this was my first real opportunity to do so. Unfortunately, I don't have many pictures that turned out well because of all the jumping around and elbow bumping in the crowd in front of the stage. This show was amazing. I'm really shocked at how much energy The Hives carried through the entire show. It was very intense and immensely enjoyable. I had heard beforehand that the lead singer, Howlin' Pelle, was very energetic and very stage friendly, but the rest of the band was quite animated as well. The lead guitarist, Nicholaus Arson, was crazily staring into the crowd, spitting all over the stage, throwing his guitar into the air only to catch it by the neck and continue playing, and throwing his guitar over his shoulder to have it come back across his other hip and ready to play again. The other guitarist, Vigilante Carlstroem, was terribly into it, playing extremely fast and kept on playing at that tempo the entire night. The bassist, Dr. Matt Destruction, never let up and was completely drenched in sweat by the end of the show. And the drummer, Chris Dangerous, played so hard that it seemed as though he was on the verge of breaking his symbols in each song.

They played a lot of my favorite songs such as Main Offender, Hate to Say I Told You So, and Walk Idiot Walk, but they played a song I never expected them to play: Diabolic Scheme. Diabolic Scheme is a very odd song. It's one of those songs, the first time I heard it, I didn't particularly care for it. But after listening to it a few times, I started to really enjoy it. Now, it's probably one of my favorite songs by the band and mostly for the weird guitar solo that Arson has in it. It's so strange sounding and so off that it's quite beautiful to listen to.


Ashley and I enjoyed ourselves greatly and I really liked the Wildhorse Saloon (although the food and drink was a bit pricey). I had a great time and I would suggest that all of you go out and buy The Hives' CD's, but truthfully, I know they are a strange breed that not everyone would enjoy. However, if you enjoy a punk sound that is punctuated with extremely fast guitar rhythms and screamingly good vocals, you should check it out. So now, go. Go check out my Flickr page for a few more photos of The Hives or go check out The Hives music. Enjoy.


Edit: Thought I'd post some concert footage on youtube. Here is the video; it's not great quality, but it's all we got.