Swedish Rockers Invade New York

If you think Swedish pop/rock music began and ended with Abba, think again. There are number of great bands from Sweden these days, and I've been lucky enough to see a couple of them in the last two weeks.

First up it was garage-rockers The Hives, who perform a wild show with fast, uptempo rock tunes in matching black-and-white suits. Calling them "high energy" is an understatment, to say the least. The Hives enthusiastically solicit cheers from the audience, in contrast to the stereotype of Swedes being reserved and self-effacing. They were on a bill with another great garage-rock outfit, the all-female The Donnas from California, and it was appropriate that there two bands were playing in the new venue Terminal 5 on Manhattan's (far) West Side, since it's basically a cavernous garage.

The other night I caught a midnight show with Sweden's answer to The Donnas, the all-female rock/powerpop foursome Sahara Hotnights. They have two talented guitarists who trade licks, one of them being lead singer Maria Andersson. Besides being a late show for a work night, the only other downside of the show was that Sahara Hotnights played a quite short 45-minute set. But what they lacked in quantity they made up for in energy, power chords, and volume.