Word: nicholaus
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...corner. All five band members wear identical black dress shirts and trousers, set off by white shoes and fluorescent white ties folded to look like ascots. Offstage, the Hives prefer black T shirts that blare their individual rock-'n'-roll pseudonyms--Chris Dangerous, Dr. Matt Destruction, Howlin' Pelle Almqvist, Nicholaus Arson and Vigilante Carlstroem--in big block letters. They are not courting anonymity. Nevertheless, shortly before their concert last week at Chicago's old Metro theater, the Hives walked past their fans in the theater lobby, sporting their identity-shouting T shirts, without so much as a single...
...stores. "We couldn't get all the music we wanted to get," says lead singer Howlin' Pelle in flawless English. "So we had to try and make it up. We had no idea what rockabilly was, but we would try and make something that sounded like rockabilly--" "Sometimes," interrupts Nicholaus, Pelle's older brother and one of the band's two guitarists, "we had only seen bands in pictures or seen them on a record cover. So we had to try and figure out, What does that haircut sound like...
...Sweden learn English starting in the third grade, but the Almqvist brothers got a head start from Happy Days, Laverne & Shirley and Saturday Night Live reruns, which aired incessantly on Swedish television. SNL turned out to be a major influence. "They had both music and smart comedy," says Nicholaus. "And sometimes smart comedy is the best way to have a reference point about what's going on in real life...
...performers, the Almqvists have more than a little Blues Brothers in them. Their music is by no means a joke, but entertaining the audience is as much a part of their ethic as writing songs. "Music for us was always about excitement," says Nicholaus. "It's not supposed to be about getting a crappy childhood out of your system. It's about having a crazy time." Almost 50 years after Bill Haley, rock audiences have had lots of crazy times, but they long to repeat the great experiences of the past--hence the interest in classic-rock radio, Woodstock...
...best way to catch the Hives is in concert. Pelle, who has the slender androgynous look of the young Mick Jagger, oozes star power, while Nicholaus dances like a madman and plays flawless guitar. Their stage banter is hysterical. Pelle cranks up his Swedish accent to explain to the audience why the Hives' sets are so short: "We have been told by the government of the U.S.A. that we cannot play for more than 45 minutes. It would be dangerous to the youth." After a particularly slick guitar performance, Nicholaus grabs the mike and, in full-on Swedish tourist mode...