The Hives are survivors. Having broken through at the vanguard of the garage rock scene of the early 00s, they cemented themselves early as one of the wildest, most exciting propositions in live music. Through classics such as Hate to Say I Told You So, Walk Idiot Walk and Tick Tick Boom, the band have become a beloved fixture in the landscape, carving out their niche and weathering the changing musical tides even as their peers fell away...
This was as pure a concentration of rock music as you could ask for
The Hives have remained steadfast, and some might say stubborn, throughout their three decades of existence; seeing no need to develop much beyond the power-chord laden immediacy of their early hits. You know a Hives track when you hear it, then. But - and this is the important part - the chances are you’ll like it.
The Hives Forever Forever The Hives, as their seventh LP is named, is as much a descriptor as a mission statement, then. As the band take to the stage on the launch day of this new album, they demonstrate to a packed Rock City the renewal of that mission, and show everyone present that they have no intention of going anywhere.
As this is technically an outstore gig - albeit a very large one, care of Rough Trade - there is no support act and the band’s set is short; we were out and in the pub by 9pm. But make no mistake, this was as pure a concentration of rock music as you could ask for. Streamlined and shorn of any fat, the gig mirrored the band’s oeuvre; a distillation of everything The Hives bring to the table injected straight into the veins.
At the helm of this barely controlled chaos is Pelle Almqvist. A consummate frontman, onstage he is the living embodiment of charisma. A man of the people. A man for the people; his performance carries the assurance and ease of someone who’s been thrilling audiences for most of his life and loves it.
“The album has been out for twenty hours. It’s thirty-two minutes long. That means you should have listened to it… forty times by now” he quips part way through the set. His faux-arrogance is deeply charming throughout and usually hilarious. On the truncated length of the show he says sardonically “I don’t know who’s decision it was. I am choosing to blame someone else, as is my custom.”
He asks the audience to give it their all, given the briefness of the set - it’s eagerly provided.
Assisted by their ninja roadies (this isn’t a metaphor, their roadies were dressed as ninjas), the band covered every inch of the stage, with Pelle especially spending more time patrolling the barrier and engaging the crowd, than in the spotlight. Dressed in matching monochrome tuxedos, the band’s sartorial choice is as refined and clean as the sound they blast over the audience. It has to be one of the best-sounding gigs I’ve ever been to; the guitars were clear as a bell even as they pulverised.
The set kicked off with Enough is Enough and Paint a Picture, a savage one-two punch from the new album. Trailed by Bogus Operandi, from 2023’s The Death of Randy Fitzsimmons, the intensity is turned up to eleven and stays there.
I Hate to Say I Told You So and Tick Tick Boom are deployed like a bomb mid-set (no pun intended), causing the crowd to explode (OK, perhaps that one was intended) and sending everyone into utter frenzy. Sweaty, boisterous, loud. It was a gloriously deafening and defining moment and demonstrative of how deeply ingrained The Hives’ best songs are in rock fan’s collective consciousness.
Legalize Living - another new song - somehow kept up the momentum, followed by a muscular rendition of the latest album’s title track. “These songs are classics too, you just don’t know it yet” smirks Pelle. I’m inclined to believe him, based on how immediately belt-able the choruses proved.
The encore is one last blast of savagery. Come On! whips up pandemonium in its 70-second runtime. Hair is slicked to brows. Crowdsurfers surge forward. Arms are thrown up. Eyes are wide. As they end on Countdown to Shutdown, the band take their bow and soak it in, having shown just what three decades of relentlessly honed live showmanship can sound like. The artwork of the new album shows the quintet dressed as royalty and honestly, it’s hard to argue with that. The Hives forever, forever The Hives.
The Hives performed at Rock City (a Rough Trade outstore show) on 29th August 2025.
We have a favour to ask
LeftLion is Nottingham’s meeting point for information about what’s going on in our city, from the established organisations to the grassroots. We want to keep what we do free to all to access, but increasingly we are relying on revenue from our readers to continue. Can you spare a few quid each month to support us?
