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Thursday, May 15, 2008
Breaking down and blowing up with the Hives
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The Hives, including frontman Howlin’ Pelle Almqvist (second from left).
Even globe-trotting international rock stars have cars that break down in the middle of a tunnel every once in a while.
The first time Howlin’ Pelle Almqvist of the Hives was supposed to talk with us about his band’s upcoming Atlanta gig, his car konked out on him.
“I have this old car that I use in the summer because it looks cool,” he says. “It’s an old Mercedes convertible. I was trying to get it out of the garage, and there was something wrong with it, so it sounds like you’re honking your horn all of the time. And it stalled in the middle of a tunnel … Then I get the car started and I managed drive it — with the horn honking — out into an illegal parking spot where it is now. The story is much longer than that, but you know…”
And 24 hours later, he told his tale of car trouble over the phone from his home in Sweden, just two weeks before the dynamic frontman and his garage-rocking Hives begin a short North American tour in Atlanta tonight at Center Stage.
And what is it with the Hives and explosions (check the first single, “Tick Tick Boom” from the band’s latest, “The Black and White Album”? They seem to have a fascination with them. “Yes we do,” Almqvist says. “Well, I think, to be fair, rock ’n’ roll has always had an obsession with explosives, from all the rockabilly songs about the atomic bomb. It just sounds good. It has something to do with the way the music makes you feel. If it’s a rock ’n’ roll song and it makes you think about things blowing up, that’s usually a good thing. That means it’s successful as a rock ’n’ roll song.”
And how does one of rock’s most energetic frontmen stay in shape?
“I don’t really stay still a lot. I’m just kind of a restless guy. I walk all the time.”
The Hives play tonight, May 15, at Center Stage. Tickets are $20. 1374 W. Peachtree St., Atlanta. 404-885-1365, www.centerstage-atlanta.com.
