"Due to 'circumstances,' we have recently found ourselves with a severe rock ‘n’ roll deficit," say Swedish rock greats The Hives. "This will not stand. We are itching to play with you rock ‘n’ rollers worldwide and we don’t want another 'intimate livestream' in sweatpants from the living room. Virus or no virus, we are still in show business goddammit!"

With that The Hives have announced the World Wide Web World Tour 2021, a series of six full-band electric shows in January that will be streamed with specific cities in mind — Berlin, London, New York, Sydney, São Paulo, and Stockholm — "Even if it means we play at 6am or some other totally bullshit time for a rock ‘n’ roller," they say, giving a side-eye to Australia. "All this from a hermetically sealed, virus-safe bunker in Sweden."

To make the shows a little more interactive, The Hives are implementing some special features on the tour:

• You will be able to send in audio messages and they will be played for The Hives in the room in real-time. As if you were in the crowd shouting!
• We will be accepting telephone calls!
• You will vote on a selection of songs we include in the set!
• Bright lights, loud noises!
• We will use crowd noise recorded in the very same city we are playing for. The New York show will have real New Yorkians cheering and screaming in the background. The Sydney show will have actual Sydneyans, and Berlin bang-on bonafide Berlinus berlinus, and so forth.

Tickets for all six shows, as well as merch packages, are on sale now. The band conclude their announcement with "And too good to be true you ask? Yes! But in all honesty, weren't The Hives always?"

Frontman Howlin' Pelle Almqvist had COVID earlier this year but has recovered, so expect high octane, high-leaping Hives shows with this virtual tour.

Head below for dates and streaming times, as well as a gallery of pics from The Hives' 2018 Chicago show and a stream of The Hives Live at Third Man Records, below.

The Hives World Wide Web World Tour
January 21 Berlin 20:00 CET
January 22 London 8:00pm GMT
January 23 New York 7:00pm ET
January 28 Sydney 9:00pm AEDT
January 29 São Paulo 20:00 BRT
January 30 Stockholm 20:00 CET