The Hives Forever, Forever the Hives

It’s been nearly two years since The Hives made their long overdue return to the Emerald City. Since then, the Swedish quintet have been busy melting faces the world over and recording a rocking follow up of their album The Death of Randy Fitzsimmons with The Hives Forever, Forever The Hives. Mondays aren’t always the best for a concert, but Seattle still showed up at Showbox SoDo, (some even adorning handmade lightning bolt dress suits from the 2023 tour, epic, really).

The crowd was a mix of fans, the young, new listeners and the sea of millennials who definitely grew up listening to the Veni Vidi Vicious album when it debuted in 2000. (Raises hand; Guilty. Did we also later avoid the mosh pit but still sing every lyric to “Hate to say I told you so”? Absolutely. Hands on hips punctuated with some fist pumping and everything.)

Punk outfit, Snooper, gave a rowdy opening performance to warm up the crowd. A difficult challenge given that the crowd mostly consisted of pseudo-geriatric Monday night millennials. We (speaking for the crowd here) eventually dug deep and found our inner, punk show-goers and let it rip. Definitely recommend a listen, or at the very least, a Google. What do you know about “egg punk”, huh? The music is fast, dizzying and the live show is a hell of a good time. The Hives took the stage and dove into the opening track “Enough is Enough” off their latest album. Howlin’ Pelle Almqvist (yes, for you Hives newbies, this is his real stage name.) screams “Everyone’s a fuckin’ bitch! And I’m getting sick and tired of it.” Hell yeah. (Cue fist pump.)

Although the band was on The Hives Forever album and tour cycle, they still managed to include all the bangers Hives fans go crazy for. Every hit single, every deep cut, turned up to eleven. “Walk Idiot Walk”, “Tick Tick Boom” it was all there. Personal favorite, “Bogus Operandi” the intro to that song is the stuff of true rock and roll, epic in every way. It’s at this point that you realize how legendary this band is. High flying kicks, crowd surfing, climbing stage pillars? The antics and undeniable charisma of every member of this band will make you think twice about slowing down with age.

After all these years, they haven’t skipped a damn beat. It holds up! It’s even better than I remember! How is this possible? Pelle did make a joke about being alive for 200 years but now I’m not so certain he was joking… Whatever it is they’re doing, it’s working. Oh yeah, I’m pretty sure the The Hives Forever, Forever the Hives isn’t just an album title, it’s a declaration forever stamping their name in the rock and roll history. For those who call it cheesy, this is certainly true, but also you have probably never been to a Hives show.

Set list:

ENOUGH IS ENOUGH

WALK IDIOT

WALK

RIGOR MORTIS

RADIO

PAINT A PICTURE

MAIN OFFENDER

BORN A REBEL

STICK UP

BOGUS OPERANDI

HATE TO SAY I TOLD YOU SO

O.C.D.O.D.

I’M ALIVE

COUNTDOWN TO SHUTDOWN

COME ON

TICK TICK BOOM

ENCORE

LEGALIZE LIVING

BIGGER HOLE TO FILL

THE HIVES FOREVER