tick tick tick boom...

i heart the hives. who knew?

mellowlee and i headed down to the commodore friday night to catch the hives/the donnas rockin' it out. sadly, no photo evidence as i neglected to check the battery on my camera before the show. :(

we got there nice and early ( a surprise to anyone that knows me) and managed to snag a table at the totally sold out show.

first up, the opening band. now, i'd like to offer a piece of advice to all opening bands. announce who you are! as much as possible! yes, granted they did say who they were in their very first sentence on stage. however, if you slur it into the next sentence, a lot of people won't catch who you are. and since you are the opening band, a lot of people are still arriving and wouldn't have heard it. if they liked you, they would have to try and find out who you were. never make people work to find out who you were. at the very least, one of the last things you should utter before leaving the stage is "thank you, we are "insert name of band here". if it wasn't for the donnas announcing you once and the hives announcing you a few times, i would have had no idea who you were and i actually thought, hey this band is ok, i wouldn't mind looking into them some more.

anyway, thanks to the hives (i'd forgotten by the time the donnas had left the stage), i found out the openers were vancouver's own "the hits". i enjoyed them as an opener, they fit the bill (garagey punk stuff) and i think i would like to check them out again. i really could have done without the 'jumpin' jack flash' cover tho. (shudder)

next up, the donnas. i haven't seen the donnas for a few years now. i used to go see them all the time. i enjoyed them as i always do. they are more polished than before, which is to be expected. and i would have like to have heard more older material but they still rocked. while watching them, a thought occured to me. when i was a wee lass, this was how i imagined being in a rock band would be. i can't imagine growing up and imagining that i'm hannah montana, rihanna or even avril lavigne. or god forbid, the pussycat dolls or fergie. are there girls that rock that are front and centre? if i was a young lass, who would i want to rock out like? i can think of tons of indie girls but off hand, i'm having trouble with the rocker chicks. but i digress.

the hives were up next. now, i like the hives. i mean, i bought the tickets (well, mellowlee did for me. because i got all mad at ticketmaster. grrrrr!). and i was excited to go. but man, was i blown away by them. they put on a show. maybe it's because i see so many indie bands, which i love. but some of them really need to work on their stage presence. good songs are good songs, but if i've paid the $$$ (which are getting even more insane. especially with ticketmaster. i've bought tickets where the fees were almost 50% of the ticket. and sadly, i am not exaggerating by that much).

but the hives were well worth the dosh. from the moment, they hit the stage, looking oh so su-ave, they were there to entertain. and howlin' pelle almqvist is an amazing front man. i totally get why spin put the hives in the top ten live acts to see and almqvist is in the top 50 of greatest frontmen. he danced, he strutted, he yakked it up. i expected him to jump into the crowd at any moment. (he did not). i see why some people call him a cross between iggy pop and mick jagger. i loved it when he said to someone in the audience something like "you want to give me that blue bracelet and i would love to wear it but i only wear black and white." i also love it when a band plays all their major hits before the encore. it makes it seem like a true encore. it's something i always say i would do if i was in a band.

the hives were loud, fast and tight. just like a rock n roll band should be. they, and especially almqvist, owned the stage friday night.

i heart the hives. and almqvist is my new rock n roll boyfriend.