Fever 333 | Stay Gold
It was the night before Good Things, the 4th of December, when the one and only Fever 333 hit Stay Gold for their only sideshow, bringing along Melbourne’s own Mudrat.
Mudrat opened the night with the same intensity I’d seen when he supported Night Lovell earlier this year. A different crowd then and a completely different crowd now, yet his sound still cuts through genres and lands with whoever’s in front of him. The set eased in with the slow atmospheric build of “MUD,” his band stepping into place as the tension rose before everything snapped into gear and the room lifted with it. Between tracks he took brief moments to speak with the crowd, reflecting on how grateful he is to be standing where he is, and honestly, after being announced for Good Things just over a week ago, it is a moment well earned. Congrats to him, seriously.
Photo Credit: @_tristanphotos
As the set pushed on, the energy continued to refine. He closed with the hard-hitting “Year of the Rat,” splitting the room for the final breakdown and running it back to send Stay Gold into disorder one more time before he left the stage for Fever. And in a very niche win for anyone who was at Night Lovell earlier this year, he jumped off the stage and managed to get back up without stacking it. Ten out of ten. A beautiful redemption.
I was genuinely intrigued to see what kind of energy Jason Aalon Butler would bring to a venue like Stay Gold, especially since there was nothing in the room for him to climb. Regardless of that, Fever 333 kicked things off with a flying start. First track of the night? “BITE BACK.” Given Stay Gold is such a small and intimate venue, it felt so much more real being literally right next to the artists. Jason paused early in the set and said, “You know what’s good about a show like this?” then moved the mic away and continued, “I don’t even need a mic.”
He followed it with a run of empowering points about inequality and injustice, which sits at the core of everything Fever 333 stand for. Their whole identity is built around community, charity and change, speaking out against racial injustice, police brutality and systemic inequality. It was a powerful moment that echoed the same themes Mudrat had touched on earlier in the night, making the two of them sharing a stage feel genuinely fitting.
Photo Credit: @_tristanphotos
The setlist was stacked too, with tracks like “Only One,” “Made an America,” and “Burn It,” each one hitting just as hard as the last. And then they dropped a cover of “Song 2” by Blur, which I personally was not ready for. Absolutely mental cover from them.
Stay Gold will always have a place in my heart for being able to bring artists of this status into such a small room. The fact Jason can take two steps and be crowd surfing or just casually hop into the crowd amongst the masses makes it such a humanising experience.
Photo Credit: @_tristanphotos
In a nutshell, I absolutely loved this show. The energy both artists brought to the stage was nothing short of biblical, and on a small stage like that they still managed to use every inch of it to their advantage. Nights like this remind you why live music matters.