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The Hives

Dec 02, 2025 By Susan Hansen Photography by Rachel Lipsitz Web Exclusive

“It’s cold in here,” Pelle Almqvist decides, “…and.. I am from Scandinavia.” The style, the choice of words, is welcome, and The Hives frontman makes the crowd laugh. The crowd is with him and the band, all the way.

This is not an uncommon reaction, it’s how things are when they are in town. To watch Almqvist, and listening to his commentary, is worth a lot.

In fact, the Swedish five-piece go above and beyond to entertain with a stellar live performance, taking their rock ‘n’ roll anthems across the UK and Europe, the north London show is a masterclass.

Ticket sales for the tour have not quite matched the intensity, the scale of what the band are capable of conveying in concert, because they deliver the goods on stage. Fifteen songs and an encore of four are swept up in an instant, in their company.

Especially with Howlin’ Pelle Almqvist in charge. Steering the garage-punk ship for a solid ninety something minutes, it’s a set of the sort where a dip in energy is no option. It’s a snarling ordeal that restores belief in the rawness of music, happening in a setting where thunderous rhythms, visceral guitar riffs and growling vocals come together in the most powerful encounter.

Sweaty, spontaneous and loud, songs such as “Paint A Picture”, “Main Offender”, “Stick Up” and “Tick Tick Boom” and more, make the crowd jump, wave their hands in the air. Naturally, the big hit “Hate To Say I Told You So” sounds glorious. Its singable, equally shoutable chorus, that made it such an instant earworm when it came out in 2000, only cements its position.

The absence of confetti, pyrotechnics or fancy video inserts is actually refreshing. It’s a strength, it allows the basic ethos of rock ‘n’ roll to drive the show forward.

The Swedes leave us with a heightened sense of having witnessed the fire that never died. It’s possible that the band’s 11-year hiatus helped fuel the spark, and picking the right occasion to do so.

A spectacle of great vitality, this has been The Hives in 2025, the group you may have missed back in the day, playing a set perfectly matched to the early 2000s, only now, they sound even stronger, and better.