IN CONCERT
The Hives with Fidlar
When: Wednesday, 9 p.m.
Where: Club 9ONE9 (919 Douglas St.)
Tickets: $35 at Lyle's Place, Ditch Records, the Strathcona Hotel and ticketweb.ca
The Hives have grown stronger and bolder as time progresses, morphing from flag-bearers for the Swedish rock revolution into Swedish rock gods in over a decade of active duty.
In recent years, however, the band's nationality has been dropped from the conversation; their music is no longer prohibited by borders separating one rock band from another. The Hives are now simply rock gods, qualifiers be damned.
"Our reputation has been pretty good for us," singer Howlin' Pelle Almqvist said Wednesday from his home in Stockholm. "That's something for which you can charge an entry fee. You can always pay rent."
The group from Fagersta, Sweden, first encountered mainstream success in 2002 with the omnipresent smash Hate To Say I Told You So. From there, the group went on to lead both the garage-rock and Swedish-rock revolutions of the early 2000s, dominant musical movements that gave birth to everyone from the White Stripes to Sahara Hotnights.
While the majority of those groups have either faded into obscurity or folded entirely, the Hives continue to thrive.
That comes as no surprise to Almqvist. The master showman, a self-satisfied student of the James Brown school of butt-kicking, has always felt very strongly about his worldconquering comrades in rock.
"The reason we started this band, a lot of it was that we wanted to blow a lot of other bands offstage," he said. "That's one of our biggest driving forces - to top other bands. More than selling records, or being huge stars, or having sex with pretty girls. We're mostly about making music we love and beating other bands and the audience over the head with it."
The Hives (who also feature guitarists Nicholaus Arson and Vigilante Carlstroem, bassist Dr. Matt Destruction and drummer Chris Dangerous) have been especially on fire in recent months thanks to the motivational push that arose with the release of their new album, Lex Hives. Concerts by the group have also been incredibly well received, especially summer stops at the Reading, Leeds and Coachella festivals.
Almqvist says he has a ball playing festivals with multiple stages, and salivates upon seeing the Hives slotted between sets from other rock bands. Not only does it create an atmosphere of one-upmanship, which Almqvist loves, it gives him and indication of what tools the competition is bringing to the table.
"I love playing festivals for that reason alone. If all bands were touring separately, we would never see each other and I would have no idea what other people were doing."
Almqvist and his bandmates have always worked hard for their money, even when it was flowing in large amounts close to a decade ago (Tyrannosaurus Hives, from 2004, was the first album in a deal with Universal Music Group worth a reported $10 million.)
The Hives are extremely lucky nowadays, Almqvist says, because they still get compensated nicely for their time. The group has three all-star singles to its name, Hate To Say I Told You So, Walk Idiot Walk, and Tick Tick Boom, but it also delivers on cue in concert. That's the key to the Hives' success, according to Almqvist, and explains why the group is dressed more often than not in matching black-andwhite suits.
That said, even the mighty are struggling with the music industry's current business model. "We were there at the tail end of getting paid for recorded music. But the last three albums we released, album sales dropped pretty much by half every time we put out a record. It's a necessary transition, but I think it can be pretty hard. It's easier to find an audience but harder to make a living."
Lex Hives, which arrived June 5, is the first self-produced recording by the group, which had used an outside producer on its four previous recordings.
It was a good idea at first, Almqvist admits. But over time the diplomatic process became something of a progress-killer. "I think we always have to have a dumb idea when we make a record. Something to focus on like, 'Oh, this will be the record we make ourselves, at home,' and then we can get excited by that challenge.
"[Now that it is finished] I kind of feel like we should have had a producer."
Struggles aside, the group came up with yet another winner to add to its catalogue, Almqvist said with a mock boastfulness.
"There could be some really great bands out there and we'd still be top of the heap."
The group's frontman says he "loves making records" but remains a slave to the Hives' live show. Everyone works to keep up their energy in concert, he says, because it remains the most direct link to their fans.
For Almqvist, it's a form of communication. "Rock 'n' roll has been around for 50 or 60 years, but the feeling of being excited by seeing live music has been around for thousands of years," he said.
"It's kind of an ancient art, really. People were shouting something out back when we were living in caves. That's basically what I'm doing now, except I have electricity on my side."
