Two songs into the Hives set late Sunday night at the Grove of Anaheim frontman “Howlin'” Pelle Almqvist – always the fervent self-promoter – revealed to the crowd of maybe 400 that on this night, he was a little under the weather.
“I caught the Ebola virus in Austin, Texas,” the already sweaty singer said with the faintest of accents. “Give me some (bleepin’) applause for being the first person to beat the Ebola virus just to be here tonight!”
And while it surely wasn’t Ebola, he clearly wasn’t 100 percent. But virus or not, it didn’t hinder Almqvist and the rest of his dapper band from turning in a set high on energy and arrogance like only these Swedish imports can.
The Hives played nearly 20 jarring garage punk songs, delivering a varied, well-balanced run that covered new songs from last year’s “The Black and White Album,” without forgetting some of the most popular bits of old (“Walk Idiot Walk,” “Main Offender” and “Die, All Right!” were highlights).
Even a new song, “A Thousand Answers,” was revealed and immediately landed on the short list of the outfit’s most guitar-driven stompers.
Almqvist was his typical self – same Mick Jagger strut, same claims that both women and men want him – but he wasn’t the only frontman who was in it to win it.
If Almqvist was the showman, then the Eagles of Death Metal’s Jesse “The Devil” Hughes was the quintessential rock ‘n’ roller. It’s not hard to imagine the man came out of the womb with that massive boomerang mustache, aviator sunglasses and a guitar in hand – he makes being a rock star look so easy.
Cooing, gyrating and stalking the stage, Hughes led his band (minus co-founder and drummer Josh Homme of Queens of the Stone Age, who typically misses out on touring with Eagles) through a supercharged set of sexed-up blues-rock.
Though plenty of old material propelled the set, new cuts from October’s “Heart On” never dragged down the performance.
One of those, “Now I’m a Fool,” was one of Eagles’ better songs. The slowed-down tune was a nice change of pace and the lyrics came less from the pelvis and more from the heart – quite a departure for this band.
Even Anaheim-based openers the Willowz were hypnotizing. The band, playing to 200 or so, captured the attention of many early-arrivers.
Like a fiercer Raconteurs minus the slower numbers, Willowz was most interesting when switching between controlled instrumentation and unleashed guitar wash. Definitely a local act that deserves some national attention.
Contact the writer: 714-445-6689 or npirani@ocregister.com
