Review: The Hives in Memphis

To cap off our trip to Memphis, Amy and I caught The Hives at the New Daisy Theater on Sunday night. I had heard that The Hives put on a great show; however, they exceeded all of my expectations. It was the most fun I've had at a concert in quite awhile.

As expected, the band looked great. They were wearing black shirts, black pants, white ties and white jackets. They coordinated their outfits nicely with their all-white drum set and Hiwatt amplifiers. Kind of reminded me of early Urge Overkill.

After opening with "Abra Cadaver," they tore through just about all of the songs from "Tyrannosaurus Hives" and "Veni Vidi Vicious." They closed the show with "B Is For Brutus" and "A-K-A I-D-I-O-T." I think my personal favorite was "Diabolic Scheme." Pelle's voice and campy deliver were hilarious. Plus, right before the little guitar solo, the whole band literally froze for about 30 seconds. They didn't move. They didn't even blink. Very funny.

Lead singer Howlin' Pelle Almqvist may be the greatest frontman currently performing in rock and roll. He kind of looks like Don Knotts doing an impersonation of Mick Jagger. When he wasn't screaming or kicking or twirling the mic by the cord, he was encouraging the crowd to cheer louder for him (and presumably the rest of the band). Before one song, he had the crowd repeat "Pelle" over and over (he wanted it louder each time). Then, he had us repeat "I Love You, Pelle" over and over, too. At one point, he half-jokingly commented, "The Hives are doing great. Memphis could use a little work."

There is a post on HivesMusic.com about their visit to Memphis. I have uploaded all of the photos from the show to Flickr.