When tickets for The Hives at Portland, Oregon’s Mississippi Studios went on sale months ago, many die-hard fans were confused. Why was this long-running Swedish garage punk band with a huge and loyal following – and who just released their first new album in over ten years, The Death of Randy Fitzsimmons, playing such a small venue? After all, the suit-wearing band has been tearing up massive stages across the world for more than twenty years now and has maintained a high level of popularity and enthusiasm with fans both young and old. Their sound and wild showmanship practically demand a festival or arena setting. This was likely followed by excitement at the prospect of getting to see The Hives in an intimate venue (capacity around 700 but usually less) as they quickly snatched up tickets. These were the circumstances that led to a buzzy and very sold-out crowd gathering to catch the band on Friday, November 10th.
Following an opening set from Kate Clover that set the stage for what The Hives would bring both in intensity and pure garage rock fun, the band entered to an ominous piano intro donning their dapper glow-in-the-dark lightning bolt suits. What ensued from that point on was a clinic on how to perform the perfect rock and roll show, debauchery and all. The band fired off with “Bogus Operandi,” a huge opener that saw Howlin’ Pelle Almqvist immediately doing crowd work as he invited fans to sing along while his band charged forth under a manic display of strobe lights. “Main Offender” came crashing in next with the kind of bar room garage rock fury that only The Hives can conjure up. Embodying a sort of Swedish-James-Brown-meets-traveling-preacher persona, Almqvist lurched, roused, and chided as he remarked how small the venue was for a band of such stature as The Hives, pulling the audience into the clap-a-ganza antics of “Walk Idiot Walk.” Throughout their hour-plus set, the band proved to be masters of pacing as they took the fans on ups and downs and didn’t lean too heavily into The Death of Randy Fitzsimmons. New songs did make appearances though, starting with the stomping post-punk of “Rigor Mortis Radio,” which was followed by the blistering punk of the slightly new tune “Good Samaritan.” The band veered back with the dive-bombing rocker “Go Right Ahead” before unleashing the dark blues sound of new tune “Stick Up.”
Portland crowds are generally pretty mellow, and Almqvist seemed to revel in bossing them around with blunt instructions and lively coaching on when to clap, sing, and scream as loud as possible. This approach clearly worked as the crowd was whipped into a frenzied and sweaty mass by the time the band kicked off “Hate to Say I Told You So,” one of their best-known tunes. Careening towards the one-hour mark – it’s hard to imagine a band with this much energy playing much longer – they tore through the dark and sinister “I’m Alive” before the new fan fave “Smoke & Mirrors.” Two massive, swaggering tunes – “The Bomb” and “Countdown to Shutdown” – would end the set in explosive fashion as the band laid into heavy riffage to bring it all to a close. As the audience clamored for at least one more tune, these gentlemen of rock returned for the raw rallying cry of “Come On!” and the driving anthem “Tick Tick Boom” that saw Almqvist making the entire audience sit down and “shut up” before bringing them to their feet for one final moment of rock and roll bliss. You’d be hard-pressed to find a better rock and roll act than The Hives, and getting to see them in such a small space was a treat for this lucky Portland crowd.
