The Hives - TD Banknorth Garden or my dream date with Howlin' Pelle Almqvist

So there I am in the gift shop of Boston's Museum of Fine Arts with my Mother. She's browsing postcards, I'm looking for a book on Gilbert and George when over the top of the bookshelf I spy strangely familiar looking noggin. Don't I know that guy? But how? Hey, is that Howlin' Pelle Almqvist, lead singer of fabulous Swedish garage rockers The Hives?

I stalk the gent around the bookshop for about 5 minutes wondering if I am mistaken, before seeing the clue that shows me I'm not - he's wearing white shoes. OK, it must be him. When approaching celebrities, it's always difficult to know exactly what to say. For instance, my friend Brad told me about how he once saw Robert Plant looking for a toothbrush in a duty free shop in Heathrow Airport. There was that moment of panic that precedes seeing someone whose music has changed your life, then the idea you have to go up to them and say something. But what? "I like the Oral B myself" - ? In the end he elected to say something to the effect of "Thank you for making music that changed my young life", a comment which Plant seemed very happy with, before buying some floss and departing. In this case though, I have something to say to Almqvist - so I approach.

ME: "Excuse me, aren't you in The Hives?"
PELLE: "Yes, I am"
ME: "Hi, I'm Erin, I'm a fan"
PELLE: (shakes my hand) "Nice to meet you"
ME: "I wanted to see your show while you were here. I tried to get tickets but they were sold out. You were here last night, right?"
PELLE: "Last night and tonight, but tonight it's just a half hour, we're opening for Maroon 5"
ME: "Oh right. So when are you going to be back here next?"
PELLE: "In February I think. You know, if you want, I can put you on the list tonight, just write down your name for me and I'll put you on."

Yes, you read that right.

A bit more talk about how great their new website looks (because it does) and when is set time and I'm left to return to my Mother and use a lot of hand signals to try and explain who that tall guy I was talking to was.

________________

4 Hours later, I'm surprised to find myself sitting in a free seat provided by Mr. Almvquist, surrounded by hoardes of plumpish blonde 15-20 year old girls (because that is the description of 80% of Maroon 5 fans). The price was right, but after being so up close and personal, the 800 feet or so I am from the stage harshes my enjoyment of the show. The sound is terrible, echoey and hollow but to be fair in their matching black outfits with white trim even from this distance the band look great. They lead with a song I can't identify - is it new? - with second being "A Little More for Little You" not exactly the strongest selections to lead a show that's only a half hour long. Still, each of these guys is such a consummate performer it's hard to deny the enormous effort they put into selling their set. Drumsticks are hurled upwards and are caught in time for the next downbeat, guitarist Nicholaus Arson perches on a monitor and salutes the crowd, but Almqvist is ever the star, prancing the stage like Mick Jagger, doing kick-splits in midair, waving the audience to applaud at the end of every number, and rattling off a wide array of comically egomaniacal comments as if we are his date for the evening, purring into the mic "Let us now love one another" before kicking into "Walk Idiot Walk." As a frontman, he's without parallel and the Maroon 5 girls eat up his arrogant Swedish charms. So by the time he hops down from the stage during new song "Try It Again" to wander through the audience (no mean feat in a giant venue like this) they grasp at his hands and touch his hair like they paid their $45 to see Hives and only Hives. The set ends with the best song of the night, a grinding little number which is the forthcoming single from the "Black and White Album" (out in November in the USA) "Tick Tick Boom". Download it here.

The red neon Hives logo floats above Almqvist's head one last time as the band say their goodbyes, "It's been a pleasure for the Hives to play for you tonight Boston, and I know it's a pleasure for you" he says. "Was it good for you?" is not in this guy's vocabulary, but not one person in this venue cares.

A day later I get a phone call from my Mother, "Listen to this!" she says before holding out the phone to her workdesk CD player. It's The Hives. "One of my coworkers brought these records in for me to hear", she says before getting down to her review. "The songs are awfully angry, not really my thing, but that boy you saw in the store, he's much more handsome in person than in this picture on the cover of Tyrannosaurus Hives..."

OK Mom, I'll let him know.

_________

Epilogue: As I leave I note the merch Maroon 5 are selling. Besides the usual T-shirts there are glowsticks that say Maroon 5 on them, shot glasses reading Maroon 5 and teddy bears wearing T-shirts which proclaim "I love Maroon 5". Teddy bears and shot glasses, well put that in your pipe and smoke it Mr. Freud.