The Hives, The D4 @ ForumTheatre, 19/10/2005

Sun 23rd Oct, 2005 in Gig Reviews

You know it’s been a pretty remarkable year for an international band when they re-tour Australia within the same year. The Darkness were locked in for a November 2004 tour, ten months after their Big Day Out triumphs, until exhaustion took over.

Not so for The Hives. The black and white-clad Swedes simple don’t have ‘exhaustion’ in their collective vocabularies. Tight pants, sweaty bodies? Check. Scissor kicks and rock poses? Check. A Dirty Dancing-style backdrop coupled with orchestral music for the band’s walk on stage? Check. We’re in for a good night.

New Zealand boys The D4 find a slight struggle in trying to win over the crowd. Singer Jimmy Christmas is decked out in a Sgt. Peppers jacket, but their garage punk is a million miles away from The Beatles. A fine selection of tracks from their two albums (though bypassing criminally underrated single Party) holds them in good stead and while they offer nothing new to the rock’n’roll spectrum, it’s still enjoyable enough to be able to swig beers to in anticipation of the Hives.

And when they walk on – Howlin’ ‘I was born to be a rock star’ Pelle bringing up the rear to the largest applause, naturally – and burst into Abra Cadaver the crowd goes nuts.

“Melbourne!” screams Pelle, eyes wide open. “We are The Hives from Sweden!”

Yes, it’s probably tiring for him doing the same shtick night after night. But that’s not our problem, is it? After all, we are merely Pelle’s disciples.

Nicholaus Arson takes centre stage for the opening riff of Main Offender and by now The Pelle Show – all windmill arms, handclaps, high kicks and now with shorter, silkier hair – is in full swing. Although his banter isn’t quite up to its usual standard (put it down to tiredness or possible his shoes – which were broken the night before in Brisbane. “Please feel free to buy me new shoes and leave them in the foyer for me,” he offers. “That’s the best thing about being a rock and roller”), he’s truly an impeccably showman.

That’s not to detract from the rest of the band. Arson, drummer Chris Dangerous, guitarist Vigilante Carlstroem and bassist Dr. Matt Destruction work up such a sweat that the white dinner jackets are gone within a couple of songs, and the white ties don’t last much longer. They tear through a set of tracks mainly drawn from latest album Tyrannosaurus Hives, with tracks like B is For Brutus, Missing Link, Love In Plaster, Dead Quote Olympics and A Little More For A Little You fully fleshed out on stage.

“Who here bought our last album Tyrannosaurus Hives?” Pelle demands, hand above eyes blocking out the harsh lights. The response is obviously to his liking.

“So who here loved our last album Tyrannosaurus Hives?” he wants to know.

Once again, positive.

“Good. Because, you know, this is part of the Tyrannosaurus Hives tour, so you would have known we would have played songs from it. And if you don’t like the album… why are you here?”

Whilst the band draws heavily on its new material these days, the call and response of Veni, Vidi Vicious’ State Control is always a highlight, while A Get Together To Tear It Apart and Supply And Demand also come midway through the 70-minute set.

But now Pelle wants to ask us some more questions. “Do you like rock and roll?” We know the answer: YES. “Do you like classic rock songs?” Once again: YES PELLE, WE DO. “And do you like hit singles?” YES. “And do you like Nicholaus Arson?” Before we can answer, Arson rips into Hate To Say I Told You So and the entire place goes insane. (The following night, a marginally more energetic Pelle would venture into the crowd for a big singalong, but tonight he stays on stage).

The band’s Madame Tussards-worthy pause in the middle of Diabolic Scheme is tarnished by Pelle’s sneaky grin in response to the rapturous applause he receives but nobody cares.

Instructing the crowd to dance “or else I’ll cut your little Melbourne hands off” the band closes the set with Two-Timing Touch And Broken Bones before quickly returning with a three song encore and rounding the set off with AKA I-D-I-OT.

And with that, they’re gone, leaving mixed emotions around the room. Far from it being universally described as the greatest gig of our lives as Pelle would have us believe, people are complaining about January’s Corner Hotel show being infinitely times more enjoyable. Had the pressure of touring taken some sort of toll on The Hives? Well, the following night’s performance at the same venue proved exactly the opposite. Superior in banter, energy, musical clarity and setlist choices, Thursday night’s show was up there with said Corner Hotel show as one of the rock gigs of the year. And yes, Pelle, our lifetimes. But of course, a Hives firing on only 60% of cylinders is still capable of blowing most other bands off stage. But a Hives at 100% is something to really behold.