This was one of 5 album launch shows in the UK for the new album The Hives Forever Forever The Hives, at one of London’s newest venues Here At Outernet that is deep in the ground, under Charing Cross Road, with all the hospitable appeal of spending a night in a bomb shelter. It’s a similar size to the Astoria (the venue that was accross the road), but sadly, lacks any charm once you’re inside.
This show was sold out and totally packed with 2000 fans of The Hives who had all got in early for red carpet photo ops, and then had to wait until 8.20 for the band to finally come on stage in their matching suits, the 5 piece Swedish Garage rockers opened with Enough Is Enough with Pelle Almqvist doing everything he could to get the crowd going and chanting along with them. He needn’t have worried on that front, everyone joined in and his brother Nicholaus Arson’s guitar riffs made certain we knew where they were coming from. After greeting us all with a couple of rounds of The Hives Forever Forever The Hives chant they went into a brilliant version of Main Offender, one of their biggest hits that made the place go a little nuts.
The Hives @ Here at Outernet, London, 2025.09.02 - © Pauline Di Silvestro
Pelle went back to rebel rousing the crowd with chants of The Hives Forever Forever The Hives while introducing Paint A Picture from the album, it sounds like a classic tune by The Hives with a great sing along chorus and some super tight drumming from Chris Dangerous about halfway through they came to a stop, all holding poses as if they were indeed a picture for a good 30 seconds, before coming back in and completing the song. Bogus Operandi from The Death Of Randy Fitzsimmons was next and had some great lyrics being spat at us by Pelle while The Johann And Only’s bassline really held things down. After this song was the first time Pelle claimed they were near the end of the set, which seemed a bit quick to me.
They then launched into a monumental take on Hate To Say I Told You So that saw the biggest mosh pit of the night, with just about everyone singing along to the chorus, it sounded just as great now as it did when I first saw them back in the 90’s. They went back to The Hives Forever Forever The Hives for O.C.D.O.D that seems to fit a band that has kept to its blueprint and sound as strictly at The Hives do, with a great brawling guitar battle between Nicholaus and Vigilante Carlstroem.
The Hives @ Here at Outernet, London, 2025.09.02 - © Pauline Di Silvestro
Pelle then asked if we wanted to hear anymore? They were running out of time allegedly, by way of an intro to Tick Tick Tick that sounded immense. Pelle then told us how he thought the venue seemed a little German to him and he missed The Astoria where they had played way back when, before they got quite political on Legalize Living that made clear they don’t like all the senseless laws restricting our freedoms that they find around the world.
We then had a long round of them chanting The Hives Forever Forever The Hives as an into to the song of the same name, that had a couple of breakdowns into more chanting of the songs title, before they said goodnight after just under 45 minutes, part of the audience reprised the chant and we then spent ages getting them back out for an encore, the crowd only really cheered loudly once Chris Dangerous came out and encouraged everyone to cheer.
The encore started with Come On, followed by Born A Rebel that they ramped things up on and get everyone going, before Pelle started claiming it was the venue making them finish early, with 50 minutes still to go till closing time, it was part of the intro to Countdown To Shutdown that would have been a perfect closer, if they had played right up to curfew, but when you’re finishing your headline set, being the only band of the night, 1h minutes after you came on stage with at least 5 minutes off stage for the encore, it felt like a bit of an insult to the 2000 fans, almost none of whom cheered when they then left the stage. The Hives are still a great live band, who need to start treating their fans better and playing 90-minute sets again.
The Hives @ Here at Outernet, London – 2025.09.02
Live review by Simon Phillips
Photography by Pauline Di Silvestro
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