Fevertree – Roxy’s, 01.06.07

The things we do for our friends. I would not normally make any kind of effort to see Fevertree but since my hostess for all my little jaunts to JHB wanted to go and watch them, I thought it was only fair. After all, the poor girl does uncomplainingly let me in at 4:30am on many an occasion! Also, I have never been to Roxy’s before so it seemed like an okay idea.

Needless to say, we did not factor in the possibility that maybe nobody else wanted to watch Fevertree either. Roxy’s was playing host to a grand total of about 30 people, all of whom were propping up the bar. A few girls took to the dance floor when the opening act, Sasha Lee, started to perform. They (the band, not the girls on the dance floor) were quite mediocre, but the singer had a pretty voice and she was clearly popular with the girls who were dancing and singing along. We had never heard of them though and they weren’t riveting enough to divert us from our conversation or distract us from sampling the wares of the bar. I did like the chorus of one of their songs…”He only wants you ‘cos you’re easy” (or something like that)…that made me giggle.

Fevertree then took to the stage, and it seems to me that the singer is the only original member still standing. I could be wrong though because honestly, I haven’t been paying that much attention. The thing is, this band is not bad. I don’t actively dislike them. They are just….bland. The vocalist actually has a lovely voice and their songs are nice (hehehe what a bland word!). I just feel as though whenever I am listening to them, I’m waiting for something to happen. And it never does. It’s all very anticlimactic. However, I’d be lying if I said nothing happened on Friday night. White Mike happened. Feel confused? So did I! The band had played maybe 2 songs when they introduced White Mike and said he was going to do his thing and get people up on the dance floor. The girls who were already on the dance floor scattered. The band then proceeded to jam while White Mike did some kind of horrendous break dance thing. No really, I’m not kidding. It happened. I felt like I had been sucked into some bad parallel universe. My friends were laughing at me because I have no ability to hide my feelings and my disgust and utter dismay were written all over my face. There was lip curling, of that I am sure. And then it was over, White Mike skipped around the room clapping his hands, his buddies slapped him on the back in a show of brotherhood and took him to the bar, and the band continued with their set. I was left feeling slightly damaged though.

I managed to make it through the rest of the pleasantly ordinary performance without any more nightmarish trips back to school discos in the 80’s. All I can say is that if I were still teaching and Fevertree were my pupils, their report card would say “Has potential but is not fulfilling it. Must try harder next term”.