Who
The Hives
Who
Bad Nerves
Where
Wolverhampton The Civic At The Halls
When
30th March 2024
Price
£35.00
Who with
Blower
Position
Towards the back
Comments
Continuing my recent tradition of enjoying second viewings of bands many, many years after the first time, I saw The Hives a full 22 years after their show in 2002 at Manchester Academy. I've only just now verified that I'd also seen them at Leeds Festival 2002, as I don't remember their performance but only their buggering off at the signing tent before we got to meet them. Sadly the legendary Dr Matt Destruction had left The Hives in 2013, apparently for health reasons, and The Hives were unusual in being a bit of a novelty act who somehow had retained relevance and interest over two decades. The secret of their success simply has been releasing some stonking tunes such as Tick Tick Boom and Walk Idiot Walk to solidify their initial appeal, but the reason I came back for more was Tom's passionate endorsement of their continued brilliance. We all agreed to attend for a bargain £35 plus fees, and I got Blower to join for his first proper gig ever after a long run of our enjoying other shows together. Tom then announced that he wasn't going with us after all, then Nick bailed at the last minute, leaving me hugely frustrated to have agreed to this entirely for social reasons that had now been fucked through no fault of my own. It makes me realise why I don't even waste my breath inviting people to gigs most of the time. A handful of tickets remained unsold at the last minute according to Facebook, and I decided to wear my Kraftwerk Electric Cafe t-shirt and to break out my thin coat for the first time this year.

Although mightily pissed off by the situation, I still had Blower to entertain and he was more than happy to revisit the glorious Lithuanian restaurant in Wolves. To my surprise it was pretty busy and they took forever bringing out our drinks, but the food was outstanding and enormously filling. Doors opened at 7pm and I explained that we had no need to be there until 8.30 or so, making a rare luxury of a relaxing meal that we could be confident wouldn't stop us seeing the entirety of The Hives. Also I knew that the view from the back of the Civic was excellent, and probably preferable to ensure we didn't get sucked into the moshpit. Tom was seated and we spotted him to our right on the first floor, and the delicious food and two pints of lovely Lithuanian beer had helped improve my mood. The Hives backdrop of lettering you can see in the image above was visible from the outset, avoiding the obvious chance for a big unveiling of it as the guys took to the stage. We'd got into the venue without any hassle, facing just the quick metal detectors that had given me smooth passage into Blur's triumphant concert here over 9 months earlier. Support band Bad Nerves were already onstage as it was 8.15pm by the time we arrived, selling themselves as an Essex punk band. It's not a description I find enticing, and their music seemed energetic but pretty dull. I wouldn't recommend googling Bad Nerves Hives either as there were some pretty unpleasant results, and they bored me a bit with their efforts to get the crowd going. This five piece band perhaps don't deserve such a negative review, but I was still rather annoyed by the whole experience and not in the right frame of mind to embrace yet another anonymous support act.

After Bad Nerves finished I tried talking and realised that I was losing my voice, which is an alien experience to me. But it was sheer quantity of food and lack of refreshment that was dragging me down, so I went to the bar to grab us a Coke each. I ended up in the bar behind the stage where I'd watched Butthole Surfers back in 2008, which had been my last concert before a trilogy of holidays to Russia, Iceland and plenty of Europe had blown my mind and changed my life perspective forever. The queue for the bar was long, and I couldn't believe that so many fans were here queuing rather than enjoying the show. I was going to need to drive back after parking successfully at my super secret parking spot, and the last thing I wanted was a mediocre beer in a plastic cup. Also the Coke was far cheaper and much more refreshing, and I think I'd have struggled without the soft drink. I made my way back to Blower in the crowd without any drama, not having missed anything as the stage had already been pretty much set for The Hives. This was their fourth show on the tour apparently, a day after The Hives had rocked the excellent Rock City in Nottingham. They took to the stage sharp at 9pm, I think to some classical music, followed by the new tune Bogus Operandi from their new sixth album The Death Of Randy Fitzsimmons. Randy Fitzsimmons was the (presumably) fictional mastermind who writes all The Hives material, although I always suspect they pretended to be manufactured to create intrigue and just write all their own material in reality. Interestingly this was their first album since 2012, making it their first release since Dr Matt Destruction had left their ranks. Although I'd not heard it and had focused my attention on a few spins of Your New Favourite Band, I did come away feeling that The Hives had somehow maintained their eerie consistency that no-one could ever have expected from them when they emerged as a bit of a fad in 2002 that I doubted could have lasted. It must be lovely for them to confound our expectations, and it's always a delight to be proved wrong!

I shot a short close up video of this, and couldn't help noticing people filming videos in portrait. Why would anyone do that, it seems insane? Concerts are naturally in landscape, and there is a reason why TV comes in this configuration! I didn't take as many photos as I usually do, having reasonable faith in my new camera to take some better images. It did fairly well considering we were close to the back too. The Hives were wearing dynamic lightning suits with a little luminescence and looking fantastic, and the letters of their name were sometimes illuminated in red or even blue, but were primarily in white. Pelle looked great and it was hard to believe that he was now 45 years old! Next up was Main Offender and I shot a second video capturing the band rocking out, with Pelle punching the air and tossing then catching his mic. I can't believe that he wears a tie either, and he asked us to sing along. Next up were a few unknown tunes, and I'm not quite sure why I recorded some of Two Kinds Of Trouble. As far as Hives songs go it was pretty quiet, but they're also just not the type to ever release ballads, but this seemed as close as they could get. Pelle said that they will give us rock and roll, and in return The Hives will get our applause, which seemed an interesting arrangement! Pelle also teased us a bit, asking if they should have played Birmingham instead to a chorus of boos. He asked what the largest venue in town was and seemed surprised that it was here, but he said they'd play here every night happily so long as we keep coming to watch them, and thanked us for being the exact people in Wolverhampton who they wanted to see in their audience!

Pelle pointed out that they were Swedish, which we could tell by their good looks and blonde locks, a statement which is half true at least! He talked of Lady Wulfrun and perhaps embellished the story slightly with an anecdote about first playing Wolves after coming over on two Viking boats to invade us, but this time they'd decided to use two tour buses instead. The banter was as excellent as you'd expect, and so were the energy levels with the drummer throwing and catching his drum stick a few times too. Also there was a lengthy mid song freeze at one point which was amusing and just went on forever, and Pelle talked about getting us up to 70% rock and roll, and how he hoped we'd reach 100% and maybe even 110% by the end of the night. He also told us to shut up, be louder and be quiet, and clearly relishes commanding a crowd. Walk Idiot Walk is one of my favourites and I shot a video capturing the letters in the background flashing in white, Pelle prowling the stage and asking us to sing along before saying hi to those at the front of the moshpit. The band meanwhile struck guitar hero poses, Pelle at one point pretended to cry and said he wouldn't continue, before quickly changing his mind and saying he would carry on after having a drop of beer. And then another. And another. And so forth, getting us all hyped up. Go Right Ahead is a good tune that I'm a little familiar with, as Pelle introduced Nicholas Arson on guitar and told us to go right ahead and do what we want to do. There was a slow building intro and clapping/chanting, and I recorded up until it got going. Most impressive. Although I'd like to say Walk Idiot Walk or Tick Tick Boom was my favourite, in the end it was surely the more predictable choice of Hate To Say I Told You So, but The Hives certainly did everything in their power to make us see it as the high point.

Pelle literally said that they were going to play our favourite song, and obviously this was the video I uploaded to Facebook afterwards, to a typically muted response. The crowd sang the riff and continued to do so for much of the evening, and Pelle was constantly trying to hype us up further. I'm glad that I was at the back, as otherwise my moshpit retirement could have been tested! They even played the outro to Hate To Say I Told You So again at least twice later in the evening, and whether they feel it's their best song or are just trying to give us what they think we want, it totally worked a treat. Die, All Right! was another highlight and I shot a video capturing the letters flashing in red, but it's a bit unusual to notice that the song is so frenetic that it ended up being almost impossible to mosh or go mad to anyway. Although I enjoyed everything and The Hives always held our attention, there weren't many more hits, but I'm aware that this was my fault for not better learning their new material. Apart from Your New Favourite Band and a few singles, I really didn't know anywhere near as much as I should have done. The main set finished with the unknown Countdown To Shutdown, and The Hives returned to the stage with Come On! I recorded the end as Pelle was goading the crowd to participate, while also tracking the percentage score of rock and roll we were achieving. After the (also unknown for me) Smoke & Mirrors was the inevitable finale of Tick Tick Boom, as clearly The Hives were not going to omit one of their big tunes. Pelle announced that we had achieved 102% rock and roll and I recorded the excellent intro of him getting us to chant "tick tick tick" and clap before the song burst into life. They then had the audacity to finish with a final cheeky blast of the outro of Hate To Say I Told You So, and the evening was at an end.

Appropriately The Hives took their bows and soaked up the applause as the fitting exit music of Nobody Does It Better was played. Blower had enjoyed the show and I'd also been bowled over by their energy, and after not seeing them for so many years I can't really argue that The Hives were worth the revisit. I would have enjoyed it more if I'd known more songs but that was on me, and apart from the omission of Supply And Demand, my main frustration was not to hear The Hives Are Law, You Are Crime. But as far as I can gather they have never played it ever, which is utterly bizarre as it has always been my favourite Hives song. We quickly exited then waited across from the venue for Tom, who was up for a beer. As we hadn't ran into him as planned, this snippet of the social event this concert had been intended as was unmissable. And I sure as heck wasn't going to decline that chance, even though the clocks were going forward and we'd be losing an hour, and I wasn't especially keen to hang around. We went to the Posada but their range of beer was diabolical, with a terrible selection of generic ales and lagers, and anything remotely drinkable not being available. I went for a pretty yucky Wye Valley Brewery HPA which was the embodiment of a generic real ale and I must say that I was shocked to see how shite the pub was, as it used to be quite the spot! Maybe I was unlucky or just failed to spot any bottles of non-awful beer hidden in the fridges, but it was a rude surprise. However it was still nice to catch up, also seeing Tom's brother and wife, the former I had seen at Soulwax way back in 2001! I talked proudly of seeing Half Man Half Biscuit in Coventry and Kraftwerk in Vienna - as these were my two upcoming concerts of primary interest - while also talking up just how wonderful Sparks are. Which is frustrating when I considered that I couldn't even beg anyone to join me to see them last year.

My ears were whistling but I didn't notice until I got home, so I have to withdraw the comment I made to Blower that the sound was perfect as in the end it must have been too loud. I'm probably very lucky to have seen so many live bands but never to have developed tinnitus, but I reckon I deserve some luck as the challenges and frustrations I face with concerts are already quite enough thank you very much. I dropped Blower off and got back home, forcing myself to turn on my PC and write up some notes for this review before I went to bed and forgot it all. I figured that would be faster to do this than doing on my phone then copying them, and even after changing my alarm I still felt tired the next day, as well as seeing the four day Easter weekend passing by as fast as could possibly be imagined. The next day seemed to evaporate, and I can't quite grasp where the time went to. I've tried hard to write this review up quickly but it has still taken me a week and a half to get to this point, and it's a bit of a shocker how little time I have despite all the hours saved no longer commuting and that even though my social life can feel depressingly empty, I then look at my diary and find I am pretty much fully booked up anyway! Many are activities by myself, but I do end up in the strange position of feeling I can and should do more, but then realising that I literally don't have the time. Although being let down and frustrated is hugely annoying, it does give me more time to do the things I want to do, and in the end The Hives were a worthwhile excursion. Any drops in my enjoyment levels can be fully dismissed due to my not knowing their material better, and in itself their performance, energy and setlist was pretty much flawless.
Setlist
Bogus Operandi
Main Offender
Take Back The Toys
Two Kinds Of Trouble
Rigor Mortis Radio
Walk Idiot Walk
Good Samaritan
Go Right Ahead
Stick Up
Hate To Say I Told You So
Trapdoor Solution
I'm Alive
Bigger Hole To Fill
Die, All Right!
Won't Be Long
Try It Again
Countdown To Shutdown
Come On!
Smoke & Mirrors
Tick Tick Boom

Mark: 8.0/10