Part and parcel of being opinionated music lovers is that we go and experience lots of music in its natural habitat – on a stage – and then we decide how good it was. Some spectacles are so powerful that they evoke emotions strong enough to form memories through the drunkenness. It’s a rarity but that’s why some here have to name several before deciding upon their Favourite Gig of 2013. There is zero reason for you to be reading this but if you’ve read this far, you’ll get at least halfway down before clicking the cross.
The Hives

The Hives are a garage rock band from Fagersta, Sweden that emerged in the US and the UK in the early 2000s, but existed for nearly a decade before that, playing punk rock.
The Hives are:
"Howlin" Pelle Almqvist (vocals)
Nicholaus "Arson" Almqvist (guitar)
Mikael "Vigilante Carlstroem" Karlsson (guitar)
Mattias "Dr. Matt Destruction" Bernvall (bass)
Christian "Chris Dangerous" Grahn (drums)
The band claims that their songs are written by an honorary "sixth Hive", Randy Fitzsimmons. Read more on Last.fm
The Hives on Thrash Hits
The Thrash Hits Podcast 026: Download Festival 2013 REVIEWED
June 21st, 2013
Raz and Hugh fight through hayfever and tour flu discuss the highlights and lowlights of Download Festival 2013, including Iron Maiden, Cancer Bats, Kvelertak, Slipknot, the amount of female breasts on display, and Jared bloody Leto.
The Thrash Hits Podcast 025: Download Festival 2013 preview
June 6th, 2013
Download Festival 2013 is just around the corner, so for this week’s podcast, Raz and Hugh got together to talk about the bands they’re looking forward to, the worst clashes on the bill, the bits of the festival we’re dreading, and about what Thrash Hits is going to be doing this year at Donington Park: HINT: It’s going to be awesome.
Photos: Leeds Festival – 24-26 August 2012
September 17th, 2012
In addition to those sweet as you like on-stage photos of Cancer Bats’ Main Stage triumph we showed you last weekend, our man Gobinder Jhitta took a shedload of photos at this year’s Leeds Festival. We basically gave him free rein to go shoot whatever and whoever he wanted, and he didn’t let us down – pretty much every band we ranted and/or raved about in our post-Reading & Leeds Festival podcast is featured in his gallery, which you can check out after the jump.
The Thrash Hits Podcast 013: Summer? GTFO
September 6th, 2012
With Reading and Leeds Festivals over and done with, the UK summer festival season is officially over. Well, it’s over as far as we’re concerned. This week, Raz and Hugh look back on their highlughts and lowlights from Reading and Leeds respectively, as well as taking a look at this week’s top news stories: the new album announcement from Deftones, and Sylosis bunking off from a European tour with Devin Townsend and Fear Factory to go gallivanting around the USA supporting Lamb of God.