The Hives

The Hives from Sweden play live at Alte Börse in Zurich, Switzerland

I remember my first show of The Hives as if it were yesterday. Back then, I only had my Canon 20d with the 24-70mm f/2.8. I met Philipp from German portal rockZOOM, and that show had been his first. We've met a couple of times in various pits around Zurich, and I wasn't surprised to see his boyish grin again.

The Hives play a live show

As a "been there, done that" The Hives shooter ;-) , I knew what to be prepared for: awesome-looking boys on stage (those suits...!) with lots of jumping and posing. Plus a very well-lit stage, since Alte Börse isn't your usual pitch black hole of a concert place. Also, they suffer from the SPTMP syndrome (small pit, too many photographers), so lots of stumbling was to be looked forward to.

The Hives' concert in Zurich, Switzerland

As expected, we had great fun. Openers The Giant Robots already rocked the place pretty hard. Amazing to hear, amazing to watch: A drummer whose head floats above his body (hey drummers, learn to relax like this guy while playing! More healthy for your back!), a bass player pregnant with twins (yay her!), a singer and keyboarder who knew how to pose, happy bouncy rock n' roll, and a sold-out crowd ready to rock n' roll.

Live rock in Zurich with The Hives

Also, this was the first show I shot for 20 Minuten Online, check out the gallery here and send in your pics from the show! They kick us out after 3 songs, so where are the shots you guys took after that?

The Hives

Happy times!

The Hives

The Hives

music photographers waiting for the live show to start at X-Tra Zürich

At X-Tra, you'd normally find not-so-bright light, along with the braces holding the rail to the audience in place, not the best thing if you intend to take pictures from the pit. PeeBee of usgang.ch (see his page here) and I discussed this at length whilst waiting for the band to hit the stage. Which setting to try your luck with today? One thing was clear: We weren't in for longer shutter speeds today - The Hives aren't necessarily known for their static stage show, to say the least.

The Hives live in concert at X-Tra in Zurich

When they got on stage, we were pleasantly surprised: Not only did they strike poses (stepping on darkly clothed photographers trapped between braces included) and truly rock the place, they also had one of the brightest lit stages ever. So we got to toss all of our nicely thought through plans and make the best of it. Gotta say: If everybody lit their stage like that, it'd be a hell of a lot more easier (the drawback is that everybody looks as if you're lighting their behind on purpose...).