|
I saw The Hives last night, the self-proclaimed "hottest band on the planet". I downloaded a few of their albums a while back, and think they play a nice edgy garage rock. Nothing new ... it's all recycled MC5, Stooges, and whatnot ... but they've got the flair to make it interesting, and certainly write some catchy songs. I found myself getting really annoyed during the show though. Now I've never been one for over-the-top attitude, but I can enjoy a little cockiness here and there when it complements the music. However, the show would've been infinitely more interesting to me if the singer put as much effort into singing as he did encouraging the audience to applaud the band, doing tricks with his microphone, and telling us how lucky we were to be seeing them. On top of that, the band sounded terrible ... the guitars came off flat and the bass sounded like it was underwater, and all the musicians were too busy rockin' out to bother to play their instruments well.
Can style triumph in the complete absence of content? If the history of music is any indicator, the answer is a resounding yes ... how many records have Oasis sold?
| 
previous
