The modern Classic Rock band U2 has had innumerable accomplishments, but one thing it is generally not is a good source of another band’s name-dropping. A group publicly counting U2 as an influence — not necessarily 1983 U2 or 2009 U2, just plain ol' U2 — is a move so broad and colorless that it sounds like a poor omen for the music it has made.
Somehow, Fever Fever and Clemency both mention U2 on their Facebook pages … and both are actually pretty solid bands. Fever Fever is a Columbus four-piece (not to be confused with the U.K. Art Punk band with the same moniker) whose “Beautiful Dream” crystallizes the joy and confusion of fresh love in a tight, understated package. Fever Fever's Facebook page describes its music as “a tasteful harmony of Alternative, Rock and World melodies,” which, while hovering close to the target, doesn't do it justice. The band's still-gestating tunefulness and naked sense of Folky naïveté are the true draws here.
Clemency, meanwhile, is a Tennessee- and Oklahoma-based duo that suffers from more overwrought Facebook text (“The songs that we write are a reflection of love, life and redemption”) while creating restrained, touchy-feely romance tunes that evoke a more upbeat Elliott Smith.
Fans of nimble, shy and unexpectedly feel-good Rock that doubles as a comforter on a cold night — think Mae, Avett Brothers and Mumford & Sons — should take note of these two upwardly mobile acts.
FEVER FEVER performs Thursday, Jan. 10 with Clemency at MOTR Pub in Over-the-Rhine. Buy tickets, check out performance times and get venue details here.
