Words and Photos BY Michelle Shiers

Wednesday night Swedish rockers The Hives closed out their US tour with their 2nd show at the Belasco Theatre in LA, hitting the ground sprinting in tailored black and white glow-in-the-dark suits. Until recently The Hives hadn’t released new music in 11 years but with their new record “The Death of Randy Fitzsimmons” they’ve returned to a throne that always seems to be waiting for them.  They opened their set with new track “Bogus Operandi” and 23-year-old fave “Main Offender” from “Veni Vidi Vicious” as frontman Howlin’ Pelle Almqvist and brother-guitarist Nicholaus Arson began provoking their audience with their signature ferocity.  Both Pelle and Arson crowd-surfed almost immediately, giving their fans the sweaty up close and personal experience they came for.  Clapping was requested for “Go Right Ahead” and “Stick Up” raised the temperature just right for “Hate To Say I Told You So”.  Putting their biggest hit mid-set rather than as a closer signified that even if the Hives don’t have a track as big in future, it really doesn’t matter because pure bombast is their actual legacy.

Throughout the performance, Pelle and Arson demanded audience participation. They asked for arms raised, phones up to photograph Pelle in his custom suit, and they managed to grab the hands of everyone in the first few rows. Arson looked on wide-eyed and maniacal before he blew on his fingers to flick a pick into the crowd.  Pelle peered directly into people’s phones and touched dripping foreheads. His high kicks and even higher jumps proved he is still the same powder-keg of energy he always has been with a pompous potency.

Toward the end of the set, Pelle had nearly exhausted all of his endearingly immodest confrontations. He joked “I’m just preparing you for a soft landing because I know when I stop playing, you’re going to feel an intense sadness inside.”  He addressed “Ladies and gentlemen and everybody else” to introduce “Smoke & Mirrors”.

“Have you seen a Hives show before!?” *Cheers* “Would you see one again!?” yelled Pelle before he ordered everyone to be quiet and then get loud before pushing into “The Bomb” from their new album. If you could take your eyes off him for one moment, you’d notice the unwavering tightness of the rest of the band: Vigilante Carlstrom, Chris Dangerous, and bassist The Johan and Only. With sledgehammer guitars and thumping drums, they hone the art of being anthemic but also garage.

After a tussle between security and a rowdy fan that halted the band for a minute, Pelle said “I will now hypnotize you so you forget the last minute and a half didn’t happen” instructing a countdown from 10 and said “Snap! You’re back in the room!” as they closed the main set with “Countdown To Shutdown”. The showmanship never stopped for a second as the quintet imposed tangible chaos on the floor.

Many will attend their first Hives performance and come out claiming it was the best show of their lives and this night was no exception as one crowd-surfer after another grinned in the air while security pulled them out and away. When the band returned for their two-song encore it was clear that people have always been, and still are hungry for that turn-of-the-century rock/punk resurgence - cocky, egotistical, disorderly… sheer entertainment.

Before playing “Come On” from the 2012 album “Lex Hives”, Pelle blustered “This is anticipation coming to fruition!  Pinch your arm! It’s true! It’s real. It’s not a dream. It’s the Hives!” He then took time to introduce the band starting with Nicholaus Arson who was described as the world’s only guitarist made entirely of conflict diamonds. Vigilante Carlstrom was “style grace, guts, sustainability all in one person”, The Johan and Only was described as the ghostwriter behind ‘Catcher in the Rye’, ‘War & Peace’ and ‘The Iliad,’ and Chris Dangerous was “the Rolex of drummers”.  Referring to himself, Pelle declared “I have been, I am, and I will always be YOUR rock n roll lead singer.”  He’s not wrong.

Pelle asked everyone in the venue to sit down, shushing them into silence and whispering the call-and-response of a few lyrics of “Tick Tick Boom” before the entire audience erupted back on their feet for the last song.  Luckily for their fans, The Hives have always been the perfect Scandinavian design- a band created as a prototype: tight, unpredictable, and forever young.  The night of unabashed punk fervor ended as the band, supporting act Kate Clover, and ninja-clad crew members took a bow as Carly Simon’s “Nobody Does It Better” appropriately played overhead.

The Hives were supported by LA native Kate Clover. During her set of spirited punk and a gritty kind of poise, she asked the audience if they were hot and bothered as her band was the “foreplay” for the night.