Arts & Entertainment Luke Simcoe arts @theotherpress.ca The Hives, Live Cannon are Ballroom, February 22 L, 2006, Spin magazine put outa list of the top 25 live acts currently performing. The Hives clocked in at number eight. In 2004, Spin also ranked The Hives’ Howlin’ Pelle Almqvist number 34 in their list of the 50 greatest frontmen of all time. Needless to say, The Hives are fairly renowned as a live unit. In fact, the spectre of one of the world’s best touring bands quite literally loomed over the entire evening at the Commodore in the form of an ever-present “The Hives” backdrop that occupied the rear of the stage even when the openers were saute ‘performing. This didn’t faze local rockers The Hits. The trio (two guitarists and a drummer) burned through a short set that was a blatant sonic homage to the headliners. The Hits probably would have been a big story when garage rock broke in the early millennium, but seven years later, their sound is stale and uninspiring. The same can be said about The Donnas, who’ve been using their opening spot for The Hives to promote their latest, self-released outing, Bitchin’. The four California girls warmed up the crowd with their poppy, but slightly bland take on cock-rock. I was expecting a little more from a band whose last tour through Canada ended with them getting arrested for drinking in public, but I guess cock-rock is still cock-rock whether it’s being delivered by Scott Weiland, Chad Kroeger, or a pack of ballsy, leather-clad girls. It was almost as if The Hives were making a not-so-subtle comment on the flatness of their opening acts when they stormed the stage with “You Got It All Wrong,” a rousing, up-tempo (even for The Hives) number from this year’s The Black & White Album. Over the course of their set, The Hives—and their impeccable matching black and white outfits— showed that they weathered the garage rock crash without losing a shred of their trademark arrogance, or their sense of rock as spectacle. The Black & White Album is possibly their best record to date, and the boys seemed genuinely excited to be sharing new songs like “You Dress Up For Armageddon,” or the incendiary “Tick Tick Boom” with the crowd; Almqvist behaved like the second coming of Mick Jagger (who, incidentally, comes in at number two on Spin’s list of frontmen), Nicholaus Arson and Vigilante Carlstroem swung their guitars around with gusto, Chris Dangerous lived up to his name behind the drum kit, and Dr. Matt Destruction reveled in the new album’s more bass- heavy soundscape. Mid-set, Howlin’ Pelle joked that we had arrived at the point of the show where the band has the crowd in the palm of their hands. He instructed us to listen closely as Carlstroem kicked. into the opening salvo of “Hate To Say I Told You So.” While the audience collectively lost their shit, I took a moment to reflect on Almgqvist’s statement. When you go to a rock show, you don’t want to see some band whom you could go out for beers with afterwards, you want to be pummeled for an hour and a half by a group that will break you down until you’re willing to shout back every call and response and wave your arms in the air like you just don’t care. The Hives seem to have an instinctual understanding of this band/audience relationship. Anyway, during the encore, Almgqvist quipped that the only thing that could make the night better was one more song by The Hives. Coming from a band that usually remains confined to the world of hyperbole, such a statement seemed remarkably grounded. The Other Press had the chance to sit down with Hives guitarists Nicholaus Arson and Vigilante Carlstroem before the show. Here’s what they had to say: On life after the garage rock bubble burst: “We had been playing for 10 years before we got really popular, SO we just continued to do our thing after that world kind of died out. I think we were such a good band that we could have broke through at any time. We were too good a band to be missed.” On coming from the small town of Fagersta, Sweden: “If you live in a small town and want to have fun, you have to go on tour.” On what they were listening to while recording The Black & White Album: “This time around we listened to more hip-hop and R&B. We wanted to steal some of those sounds and incorporate it into what we were doing. But we weren’t trying to make R&B songs... at least not R&B songs in the modern sense of the word.” On The Black & White Album: “Holy shit, what a fucking good record.” On Canada: “When you think of Canada, you always think of hockey... and fishing, and woods.” 16 On playing the NHL All-Star game: “We started playing hockey this year. We got the question, and more or less we wanted to go there and see some of the best players around.” On how The Hives compare to The Beatles: “We’re not necessarily bigger, just better.” On lending the song “Main Offender” to an Agent Provocateur lingerie commercial: “The one where Kylie Minogue is riding a mechanical bull? That one was a bit of mistake. The people at our record company in England said that we could do a commercial for really posh underwear, and we did it because we thought we were going to get pairs of boxers worth $1000—we never had expensive underwear like that. Obviously, when we did the commercial we found out that they only do female lingerie.” On spending more time in the studio: “When we were making records before we only had enough money to be in the studio for like two weeks. So, on the fourth record we figured we’d splurge. We felt like we owed it to whomever. This might actually be the last.rock record that someone puts a shitload of money into given where the record business is going, so we figured we had to go all out.” On touring with Maroon 5: “They were really super nice guys to hang out with; some nights they got drunk and some nights we got drunk.” On being your new favourite band: “If you like what we do, and that’s your take on the perfect music, then we’re the perfect band for you.” On good live acts: “The Dead Kennedys were a great live band. Bad Brains were a great live band. Little Richard was a great live artist. Chuck Berry... all those sixties guys. Because in the 60s they weren’t ashamed to put everything out there and put everything on the line. They weren’t afraid to make a fool of themselves. Elvis would come out and do his karate moves and shit and it would still be a cool rock show.” On bad live acts: “We were so bored during the 90s when people were supposed to stand around in anoraks with their guitars in complete darkness. Who the fuck wants to see that? You go to a rock show and you want to see the extravagant part of it all.” On potential tourmates: “A guy like Marilyn Manson can be pretty spectacular live. I think we’d bring Marilyn Manson out on tour with us. Him and AC/DC.”