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The Fevered @ Rosie’s Bar, 19.02.11

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It’s Saturday night in Brisbane and for once I’m special enough to have my name on the door at local metal dive Rosie’s…

OK, I need to stop here and make a confession. I’m more of a punk/classic rock girl. Sure I’ve got my fair share of borderline mainstream death metal bands (think Opeth and Hatebreed) on my iPod. But as any aficionado will tell you, In Flames does not a hardcore death metal fan make. As such, when I was asked to check out local Brisbane talent The Fevered, I was feeling a little out of my depth.

But always up for a challenge, I rocked up on Saturday night to discover things have changed at Rosie’s.

Yes, the patrons were still predominately male. Yes, most of the girls there seemed to be either working at the corset stall in the corner or clinging to their boyfriends in this season’s latest trends and sparkling stilettos. But there wasn’t a long-beared bikie in sight, and oh god, is that The Nutbush they’re playing?

But I digress, back to the gig.

THE CROWD

Let’s face it, these days what with Twitter and Facebook, anyone can pull together a crowd of friends and well-wishers to fill out a room. But playing to people who actually like you isn’t good enough. It’s about how you play to a room full of strangers, people who don’t know you and don’t give a fuck who you are. Whether it’s people on the street, regular patrons, or people there to hear the other guys play, it’s about making them listen.

Despite having the shit 9:30pm opening slot at Thriller, The Fevered managed to draw a pretty decent crowd. Sure they had their loyal friends there to fill out the front of the stage, head-banging and hair-twirling from the first note to the last in a way that kept reminding me of that Glee episode, ‘Hairography’ (It’s hard to keep a straight face when you’re imagining these long-haired, shirtless, tattooed guys wearing hot pants and shaking their thangs.) But it was the 20 or so complete strangers who drifted in throughout the set and stayed around that impressed me.

When you’ve managed to catch the attention of a crowd made up of metal-heads, skaters (what is the deal with the oversized singlets and above the knee skinny shorts by the way), fashionista girlfriends, punks, goths and normal live music fans at that time of night, you definitely deserve a pat on the back.

But what was it about The Fevered that pulled such a crowd?

THE MUSIC

Well firstly, considering their normal bass player was off on a yacht somewhere, and fill-in guy Nath Cöre had only just learnt the songs, they were sounding pretty damn good.

The music is a mix of angry flame inducing guitar and bass lines, ADHD on steroids drums and melodic and slightly satanic grunting. Think the drumming and guitar from At The Gates, and vocals reminiscent of Amon Amarth and Entombed. I’d comment on the lyrics, but to be honest I couldn’t understand a goddamn word vocalist Josh Robinson was saying. Normally a big no-no for me, but for The Fevered it worked as most of the catchiness and draw was provided by guitarists Chris Rowden and Nick Mckeon.

These guys probably aren’t going to be shattering the way we think about music any time soon, but they’ve managed to pin-point the working formula for the death metal genre and are good at re-creating it. Don’t expect any crazy experimental songs from these guys, but what you can expect is a well put together sound which continues seemlessly from song to song. Definately worth checking out, if only to see the awesome artwork The Grates guitarist John Patterson did for their EP cover.

The Fevered play Greenslopes Bowls Club (5 March) and the Step Inn (9 March)

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