The Fever / Whirlwind Heat - New York Mercury Lounge - 17/7/03
4/5
By: Joshua K
Unless you're Mother Teresa, could you resist the chance to examine the merits of (yet) two more of the US's stirring, young buzz bands? Rockfeedback can't, so - for the umpteenth time this year - we eagerly joined a few hundred other non-candidates for sainthood to find out whether to gobble the hype...
First up, are young Jack White disciples Whirlwind Heat, who prove, unbelievably, more unhinged live than on record. Their set is 30 minutes of ultra-violence - spastic-dancing, deranged PCP vocals, throbbing drums and bass, and quirky keyboard noises - combined with Msr. White's sense of drama and an array of bizarre non-sequiturs (examples: 'There are only two kinds of people: those who like Neil Diamond and those who don't,' and, 'I'll eat a T-bone steak for dinner any time').
Like a talented car-crash waiting to happen, the performance teetered on the edge. But it kept all eyes rapt from the incipient jittery jam through the closing 'Pink', which features howling vox about 'trash-bag helmets' and bassist Steve Damstra mangling his (ahem) instrument through his underwear. In between, we get high points including first single 'Orange' and the jagged tones of 'Black' and 'Brown'. An insane tornado, they're sure to divide attendees - but that's half the pleasure.
From the boiling 'Heat, we move to a raging Fever - and the hometown-crowd is on their side from the get-go, dancing and moshing to every nihilistic exertion. And this display is especially impressive given jaded NYC's blasé reaction to almost everything... yet it's entirely warranted.
Put simply, The Fever have tunes totally aligned with the musical zeitgeist, a band who can play them live, and, in singer Geremy Jasper, a frontman with charisma to spare. So, when he dashes onstage with a 'Good evening' following the opening, high-energy instrumental, it feels right rather than arrogant. In fact, you can picture him somehow pulling off the same move on a much larger space, along with his subsequent, constant joking and gesturing.
As on the debut 'Pink on Pink' EP, the punk energy of 'Bridge & Tunnel', the rhythmic 'Ladyfingers' and Sheila E. cover 'Glamorous Life' (delivered here with an echoed mic and almost Lydon-esque sneer) are the evening's standouts. They're joined early on by new track 'Living Room', which is post-punk in a very Public Image Limited way and marked by a driving synth break.
By the time set-closer 'Emergency' rolls around, the Mercury Lounge is sweaty and exhausted. But, as the song's 'Stones-like opening transitions into a pleasingly chaotic Eighties Matchbox B-Line Disaster bridge, everyone is the room gives it one more go, pogoing aggressively into the summer night. Dehydrating ain't the half of it.
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