LIVE REVIEW: Fever 333 @ Academy 2, Manchester
Given the overall state of the world in general right now, it’s unsurprising that more and more acts within alternative music seem to be rising up and aiming squarely at various social and political issues that face society. One of the more prominent of these bands to emerge in recent times is FEVER 333, the brainchild of former LETLIVE. vocalist Jason Aalon Butler, guitarist Stephen Harrison (ex-THE CHARIOT) and drummer Aric Improta (NIGHT VERSES).
Having formed a little over two years ago, making their debut public performance from a truck in a car park of a doughnut shop in their native Inglewood, the rap-rock trio have since gone from strength to strength, playing many more ‘demonstrations’ as they’re dubbed across the world and even being nominated for a Grammy in 2018 with their song Made An America. With all this hype behind them, the band have returned for their first full UK tour, and we caught up with it as it reached Academy 2 in Manchester.
Upon arriving at the venue, the first thing we note is that there’s actually nothing happening until a good 90 minutes after doors open to the public. Instead of any support act, we’re simply greeted with an enormous white sheet placed across the front of the stage, blocking the band’s stage setup behind it, as well as a couple of signs encouraging discussion amongst attendees in the absence of any opening band sets. It’s an intriguing stance, and one that certainly fits FEVER 333’s messages of community and togetherness well – though you do suspect that quite a lot of the people here tonight would have preferred something to get themselves warmed up.
That said, the lack of much going on for that long only adds to the sheer explosion of excitement that greets the band’s eventual arrival, which sees the stage covering lit up with flashing red and blue lights before suddenly dropping as Butler and co. promptly kick into caustic opener Made An America – the immediacy of which instantly has what looks like the entirety of the sold-out room emphatically shouting along to every last word. Only One quickly follows, to arguably even more powerful effect, as 900 people or so yell along in unison to Butler’s rallying cry of “You’re not the only one that feels like the only one”, as his bandmates lay down yet another fiery musical canvas that will quickly become the tone for much of the evening, with songs like Trigger and Walking In My Shoes taking incredibly potent political lyricism and melding them to an impressively bouncy rap-rock framework that’s almost akin to a nu-metal sounding RAGE AGAINST THE MACHINE at many points.
That’s not to say everything is entirely 100% po-faced and though; with the band choosing at one point to interpolate a rather brilliant cover of GREEN DAY’s Brain Stew with a verse of 2PAC’s California Love, as well as chart-destroying viral hit Old Town Road by Lil Nas X, in a move which produces the brilliant visual image of a room full of metalheads bouncing around and bellowing the chorus to said chart-topper. Elsewhere, INGLEWOOD, a track that’s the closest to a proper ballad FEVER 333 have made to date sees Butler taking an introspective look at the place where he grew up, and issues such as police brutality, gang violence, the ’92 LA riots and more that’ve impacted his own life. Slowing things right down isn’t necessarily something you’d expect to work as well as it does for a band known mostly to trade on incendiary heavy music, but the sheer vocal prowess of Butler, coupled with the musical versatility of Harrison and Improta really allows things to work in the band’s favour. This is later demonstrated again as the band hurtle towards the end of their set, and Jason decamps over from the stage to the sound desk in the room’s centre for a moving piano-led rendition of AM I HERE? that seems to put more than a few people on the verge of tears. Of course, after such a heartfelt moment, what else could FEVER 333 do than return Butler to the stage and launch into arguably one of their most anthemic tracks, Burn It, and immediately give the venue security several heart attacks with the resulting crowd surge and subsequent barrage of crowd-surf attempts accompanying one of the band’s very best choruses, before things finally come to the obligatory fake-out finale.
There’s barely a moment to recover after that though, as emphatic audience chants of “333” soon draw the band back onstage for the song that introduced them to the world; We’re Coming In. As you’d expect, this immediately fires the crowd back up again, and there seems to be a genuine intent between band and audience to see who can throw more energy into the song, as crowdsurfing begins again in earnest and the band begin hurling themselves around the stage like a musical hurricane once more. THE INNOCENT follows next, and sees easily the most spectacular moment of the evening, in which Butler suddenly manages to scale the wall of the venue and shimmy along a tiny platform along its’ edge before diving off into the middle of the considerable mosh pit.
With curfew rapidly approaching at this point, there’s only time for one more song, and tonight, it’s an extended cut of Hunting Season that brings things to a close, with one final mantra of “No you can’t keep us under your thumb” proving the footnote in FEVER 333‘s incredible performance tonight. They may have a considerable legacy to live up to, but based off of tonight’s showing, there really doesn’t seem to be a limit to what the members of FEVER 333 could achieve if they continue to write songs as impactful as they have thus far. Make no mistake – there’s a FEVER coming.
Rating: 9/10
Check out our photo gallery of the night’s demonstration in Manchester from Sabrina Ramdoyal Photography here:
