Music review: Arctic Monkeys and The Hives, Bellahouston Park, Glasgow

Sweden’s premier garage punk pounders and razor sharp dressers The Hives are back with more of the same relentless rocking and hyped patter from frontman Pelle Almqvist. The bratty punk of Main Offender, gnarly rocker Walk, Idiot Walk, nosebleed psychobilly of Good Samaritan and main mosher Hate to Say I Told You So appeared to convert the uninitiated at Bellahouston Park, and Almqvist’s helpful rules of the rock concert – "either the band make noise or you make noise" – were drummed into the crowd by the end of their entertaining support set.

Mind you, Matt Helders laid waste to their considerable efforts with his furious drumming on Arctic Monkeys’ opening salvo Brianstorm. This band are in competition with no one else, making it look and sound easy across a set which showed the relaxed range of their music, from the indie strut of Snap Out Of It to the louche assessment of Four Stars out of Five.

Charismatic frontman Alex Turner sucked up most of the attention, the laryngitis which threatened to derail the last few dates of The Car tour seemingly last week’s problem as he slipped into Northern Elvis crooner mode for Cornerstone or helmed the sexy Swagger of Arabella, accompanied by some acid guitar shredding.

Early singalong favourites such as Mardy Bum sounded like callow efforts next to the mighty riffola of Do I Wanna Know? or the stealthy bass-led Why’d You Only Call Me When You’re High? from the superlative AM album. Since then, the band have eschewed the anthemic for chamber pop, muzakal interludes and the slinky ambivalence of There’d Better Be a Mirrorball but such is their innate flair that all sit comfortably next to retooled epic 505 or the unstoppable force of I Bet You Look Good on the Dancefloor, which kicked off the adventure 17 years ago.