The Hives (SWE)
The Hives is here again! And damn, they sound – and look – better than ever! Hate To Say I Told You So, Walk Idiot Walk, Main Offender and Tick Tick Boom: this firing line of hits is now joined by a new, saxophone-driven single Go Right Ahead that, as is ever so often the case with The Hives, attacks you like a ferocious animal. The most stylish rock'n'roll band in Sweden is releasing their new album Lex Hives in early June, and the world is again treated with a shedload of over-energetic fuzz that goes into your ear and directly to your backbone.
In April, The Hives taught the Coachella festival a lesson in throwing a memorable gig. The band sounded better than ever and twisted the seen-all-heard-all American audience around their little finger like a weedy flower. The vocalist, Howlin' Pelle Almqvist, is the perfect frontman for a rock band. He looks like a model, shouts until microphones break up, and everything in him radiates the energy of punk rock. Right next to him, the band throws tighter-than-tight riffs like their life depended on it (and it may do just that). It's going to be nothing but black-and-white ecstasy and all fists in the air when The Hives launches their rock'n'roll spaceship on the Ilosaarirock Festival Main Stage. Hate To Say I Told You So, you can tell your friends who chose to stay home.
