We saw the Hives last night for the first time since moving to Seattle. We had seen them twice in Denver, but somehow, each time they've been slated to perform in Seattle, we had another commitment (which fits right in with what we briefly discussed on the James thread). So we were pretty eager to see this show -- especially since their most recent two albums,
The Death of Randy Fitzsimmons and
The Hives Forever, Forever The Hives, both deliver the goods.
They were booked at the Showbox SoDo, a big box of a room with zero personality -- not our favorite venue. But the place was packed to the gunwales with fans, all of whom were into it from the get-go. Sound quality was not too bad, and the band was as ridiculously tight as ever. Pelle's voice was in great shape too. He does exhort the audience a bit much to make more noise, which is usually a pet peeve for me. But when they played "Hate to Say I Told You So," he waited till all the instruments except the bass had dropped out. Then he let the bass line roll for a few measures, until he could count on the audience to sing it. Then the bass guitar dropped out, and Pelle sang the lyrics, accompanied only by a couple thousand people singing, "Dah dah, dut dah dah, dut dah dah, dut dah dah ..." That was a fun moment.
The setlist leaned heavily on the aforementioned two most recent albums -- certainly not a bad thing -- but dipped well back into their previous high points. When we got back to the car after the show, we both used the same word to describe how we felt:
rejuvenated. My wife had been through a lot of stress lately, between work and her mother's declining health ... but she said, "That show was just the mind-eraser I needed."
SETLIST:
Introduction/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, Forever The Hives
The opening act was a punk band from Nashville called Snooper. We listened to a few of their tracks online, and agreed we could skip the opener without missing out on much.
