If you’re looking for fine rock’n’roll bangers on this particular Friday night, you won’t do much better than The Hives, live in town tonight at the Great Hall. Following the release of their latest album, 2023’s The Death Of Randy Fitzsimmons, along with a stadium run supporting Arctic Monkeys, Howlin’ Pelle Almqvist and the rest of the gang are back on the road again.
It’s a low-key opening affair, initially at least: a funeral march plays, before the band appear one by one and spark up into Bogus Operandi followed swiftly by Main Offender. Howlin’ Pelle is one hell of a frontman though – he’s already diving into the crowd by the third song of the evening, Take Back The Toys, and the crowd are simply eating out of the palms of his, presumably very sweaty, hands. “Do you love The Hives, Wales?” he asks, and the response from the room is a pretty resounding yes.
Before moving on to Rigor Mortis Radio, Pelle calls it “your favourite song from The Death Of Randy Fitzsimmons!” – something he says a few times this evening. There’s humorous moments aplenty, with the frontman charming the crowd and reacting to signs, including one asking for his tie (“No! I’m wearing it because I look good in it!”). As Pelle says, though, “it’s an emotional rollercoaster at The Hives show, everybody,” even if he doesn’t throw his tie out into the room.
There are, however, multiple drinks thrown into the air when the band play Hate To Say I Told You So: at £6 a pint, a mark of an extremely good song. As part of his practically award-winning crowd work, Pelle asks the crowd, “Do you wanna review the show?” (perhaps!), and brings someone up on stage to dance around for Try It Again.
The main set ends with Countdown To Shutdown – apparently also our favourite song from …Randy Fitzsimmons – with an encore opening with Come On! and Smoke & Mirrors. “Now, we can’t play forever… it’s not yet possible. So we’ll do the next best thing. Shit’s gonna EXPLODE!” Upon which the raucous Tick Tick Boom explodes into life, ending this evening’s live Hives show.
The Hives, Great Hall, Cardiff University Students Union, Fri 5 Apr
words JOSHUA WILLIAMS photos TIM ALBAN
