When a band that features one of my favorite songwriters and one of my favorite drummers of all time flies under my radar for three years, something has gotta be up. I never get off the computer and leave the house! How could this happen?
Certain People I Know features Bob Nanna and Damon Atkinson, both well known around these parts for their past work in Braid and Hey Mercedes. Get these two guys together in a room and I will listen. I don’t care if it’s freeform jazz.
“As far back as I can remember, I always wanted to be a Hives concertgoer.” — Me
This show was a long time coming for me. The Hives are a band that only puts out an album every four or five years and lives an ocean away, so I knew my chances of seeing this legendary live act were few. I jumped on my chance to see the Hives June 30, even though it required me driving five hours north to Chicago.
The Vic Theater was halfway full when me and my buddies arrived, right as openers Flesh Light (horrible name, by the way) were kicking the night off. Hives frontman Howlin’ Pelle Almqvist’s face was peering at us from from the backdrop from the start of the show, with his puppeteering fingers extended and teasing us while we waited patiently through the opening acts. Flesh Light are a Texas trio, featuring a Rickenbacker bass and Flying V guitar, and a chick drummer. Sorry, these are the things that stuck out to me about the band. Oh, and they all took turns singing lead, which I dig. They were full of energy, I’ll give them that, but not much else stuck out to me. Young punks playing young-punk music.
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