Reviewed March 05, 2008
The Hives Black and White Tour Montreal Mar 4th 2008
by Ron Hollywood

photo credit Ron Hollywood

Tues. March 4th 2008
Metroplois, Montreal Qc

The Donnas
Brett Anderson – vocals
Torry Castellano – drums
Maya Ford – bass
Allison Robertson – guitar

Last night’s sold-out double bill of The Donna’s and The Hives kicked off in high gear and never let up. The Donnas opened with a Bitchin (pun intended) instrumental that showed these girls know how to play as good if not better than any poor boy in a rock n roll band. That is especially true of guitarist Allison Robertson’s fretwork. Vocalist Brett Anderson introduced every song and worked the stage that made her appear like a daughter of Chrissie Hynde or Joan Jett. From newer songs like Smoke You Out and the spelling sing along of Girl Talk to older songs like Who Invited You or the biggest applause hit of Take It Off the 80’s sounding gurl rock left everyone more than satisfied. Let’s hope they come back to do a show of their own sometime soon after their opening slot with The Hives is over.

The Donnas setlist
Bitchin
Don’t Wait Up For Me
Who Invited You
Wasted
Smoke You Out
Girl Talk
What Do I Have To Do
Like An Animal
Save Me
Take It Off
5 O’clock In The Morning

The Hives
Howlin’ Pelle Almqvist – vocals
Nicholaus Arson – guitar, vocals
Vigilante Carlstroem – guitar, vocals
Dr. Matt Destruction – bass, vocals
Chris Dangerous – drums

A Stroll Through Hive Manor Corridors played as the lights went out and The Hives made their way on stage dressed for Armageddon (yes another pun intended) . It was only appropriate they blasted off with Hey Little World and it’s lyrics as a warning to the audience “Hey Little world, you kow what you’re gettin / Oh please, little world, it’s kicking your head in / Whatcha gonna do? Anyone of you? Whatcha gonna do? When we come for you?” What did this Montreal city do indeed. It sang along, screamed, hand waved, and body surfed to 75 minutes of garage punk rock that was truly kicking Montreal’s head in.

The only stage production was a red neon light with the band’s name. But the band itself is one huge production or sometimes stage prop. There’s the heavy beat drummer who throws out more sticks to the audience than anyone I’ve ever seen. A guitarist and bassist who make a lot of noise without much stage movement. How about the lead guitarist who swings his guitar around like a rubber toy or rubs it up and down a speaker cabinet. Then there’s the energizer bunny front man who just keeps on going and going and going.

Vocalist Pelle spent the entire show doing either split or high leg kicks, singing into the front row or climbing on speaker cabinets. He resurrected the spirit of 1970’s Mick Jagger to perfection. From his bulging eyes and hand-on-hip swagger across the stage you had to blink twice from thinking it wasn’t Jagger himself. There were even moments of The Who’s Roger Daltrey microphone twirling act that Pelle worked in for good measure.

A quick but major highlight came at the show’s quietest moment. During You Dress Up For Armageddon there came a split second where the entire band froze on the spot. It was much like pushing the pause button during an action movie sequence. A good minute or so passed where all band members stood perfectly still in whatever position or pose they were in. As the crowd went into a frenzy the band went back into the song. As I mentioned earlier the band itself are props.

The in between song banter was showmanship soaking up it’s every bit, “The Hives are the only band at this moment that will live forever and ever. The Hives will play for your children and grandchildren.” or how about “The fire regulations in the city of Montreal state that The Hives cannot play for more than one hour or else the city will burn up. I have to apologize because we are going to play for longer than an hour and will burn up the city and it’s surrounding area.” Both statements had an astounding alarm of truth to them.

Surprisingly they did not play the second single .T.H.E.H.I.V.E.S from their current album. There were at least two times when Pelle’s microphone cut out even during the second song of the night.

Older hits like Walk Idiot Walk or Hate To Say I Told You So got the fans on the floor jumping up and down and yes we at 10 scale reviews were right along with them as we proclaimed when we first reviewed their Black and White album. Last night ‘the future of rock n roll’ was not calling, it was made perfectly clear.

The Hives setlist
Hey Little World
Try It Again
Main Offender
A Little More For Little You
Walk Idiot Walk
No Pun Intended
Square One Here I Come
Die All Right
Won’t Be Long
Diabolic Scheme
You Dress Up For Armageddon
You Got it All…Wrong
Two Timing Touch and Broken Bones
Tick Tick Boom

encore
Bigger Hole to Fill
Hate To Say I Told You So
Return The Favour

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Previously: Bruce Springsteen Magic Tour
Next: Avril Lavgine The Best Damn Tour Montreal Apr 2nd 2008

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