The Hives have never been a band to treat their fans with contempt.
For the best part of twenty years the maniacal Swedes have abided by a few simple – but successful – philosophies; play it hard, play it loud, play the hits.
With due respect, the band’s records can be slightly hit-and-miss. Even their latest album, Lex Hives, at times gets bogged down in repetitive garage thrash and lacks a warehouse-shaking single like ‘Tick Tick Boom’ or ‘Walk Idiot Walk’.
What they do in the studio however, is almost redundant. The Hives’ domain has always been in the midst of a sweaty mosh where they feed off the vibe of the night and revel in the comfort of five freshly-pressed tuxedos.
With this in mind, it should’ve been a thrill to chat with the band’s sticks man, Chris Dangerous. Unfortunately between Dangerous’ softly spoken accent and a muffled phone line, his voice was almost inaudible.
Dangerous’ answers were also short, sharp – much like his drumming but without the enthusiasm.
Still, he had a good reason for sounding sheepish. “You get pretty sick of the traveling when touring,” he says. “It’s all about the shows. You never get tired of playing you just get tired of traveling.”
It seems lie a standard response, but when you’re a part of The Hives’ circus it becomes all the more accentuated.
Dangerous not only has to land sixteenths notes with precision night after visceral night, he also has to keep pace with Howlin’ Pelle Almqvist, the band’s outspoken frontman.“We try to rest up during the day… It’s hard but it’s still so much fun to try and get the adrenaline going before every song.”
There is no ‘off’ – or ‘mute’ – button for Almqvist, indicates Dangerous. Off stage, he loves nothing more than to spruik his Hives for world domination, while casually declaring the rest of rock as being “pretty shit at the moment.”
On stage though, he grabs a show by the scruff of the neck and himself morphs into the bastard child of Mick Jagger and former WWF wrestler, The Ultimate Warrior.
“We try to rest up during the day,” Dangerous explains timidly. “It’s hard but it’s still so much fun to try and get the adrenaline going before every song,” he offers, before stamping with simple affection: “I still love it.”
While those out Western Australia way will be submitting themselves to The Hives experience at Southbound; for those venturing up the M1 to Lorne or jet skiing across Bass Strait to Marion Bay for this year’s Falls Music and Arts Festival will get to witness the circus first hand.
It’s the third time in 11 years the quintet has made the trip down to the sacred New Year’s event, which effectively means Australians can officially begin labeling The Hives as their own.
“It’s a really top festival,” Dangerous says, “and the country speaks for itself; it’s a really great country. We can’t wait to be back there – it’s one of our favourite places to play. We just hope a lot of people show up.”
Those who have been to a Hives show (warning – major spoiler alert) may be familiar with some of their repertoire. There’s the ‘freeze’, an act which sees each band member pause and remain motionless mid-song.
Another, widely known as the ‘sit down’, sees Howlin’ Pelle instruct his ever-obeying pupils to sit on the ground before roaring into another hit.
Come New Year’s, there’s no doubt the Swedes will have a new move or two up their cufflink sleeves. Unfortunately, a public appearance by their rarely sighted sixth member – and supposed chief songwriter – Randy Fitzsimmons won’t be among them.
“I’m sorry about that, Randy doesn’t do shows,” explains the drummer. “It doesn’t matter if it’s New Years or Mother’s Day, he doesn’t join us on stage.”
“We still try to change it (the show) up a bit, though it sort of changes itself,” Dangerous continues. “Our shows can go wherever we want it to go or wherever the people want it to go. It changes every time.”
On paper it all sounds a little juvenile. Here’s a group of fellows, many nearing their forties, jumping around in matching tuxedoes without a single shred of shame.
And yet The Hives have remained one of the most popular touring constants from the past two decades. It proves that music fans not only enjoy hearing their favourite band play live, they also enjoy a good ‘show’ as well.“The more bands that try and sound like us the better it is.”
Countless garage acts have attempted to imitate the group’s style, in fact, it’s hard to imagine the likes of Franz Ferdinand and The Vines forging successful careers without the Swedish innovators.
While some artists might rile against such blatant imitation, it’s water off a duck’s back for Dangerous; “the more bands that try and sound like us the better it is,” he believes.
Perhaps he secretly knows none of them will ever have the goods to steal their crown.
Still, with the band edging closer to their 20th year in the business, it is questionable how long they can keep up such antics and maintain their revered live status.
How much longer can Howlin’ Pelle convince the world that The Hives are still “the greatest rock ‘n’ roll band in the world?” How long can they continue to unleash ‘Hate To Say I Told You So’ and ‘Two-Timing Touch And Broken Bones’ with the same spitfire ferocity?
As far as Dangerous is concerned, his outlook is sensibly practical.
“I have no idea, man. I can’t really see into the future,” Dangerous explains with the type of lovable arrogance only his native tongue can pull off. “I don’t know. I think we’re never really satisfied by what we’ve done so far so we’re always pushing ourselves to get a bit better so we just keep on trying.”
“We just keep trying to play the best shows ever and keep trying to make the best music ever,” he adds, “When we’re done, when we’ve reached the point were we can’t get better or worse, that’s when we’ll quit,” he concludes.
So far so good, you know?”
Lex Hives is out now through Dew Process, read the Tone Deaf review here. The Hives play Southbound (details here) and the Falls Festival at New Year’s, details here.
