Fever High at the Bowery Electric

Brooklyn-based vocalists/multi-instrumentalists Anna Nordeen and Reni Lane separately released albums under their own names in the past few years. Adam Schlesinger of power-pop quartet Fountains of Wayne invited Nordeen to sing on demos for songs he was writing for other artists. He then played "That's So Typical" for her and invited her if she wanted to start a "Bananarama/Tom Tom Club-type" band with him. They recruited Lane and percussionist Brad Wentworth, and Fever High was born. Fever High released an EP in 2015 and a debut album, FHNY, on November 10, 2017.

On the surface, Fever High's performance at the Bowery Electric tonight seemed to pivot on Nordeen and Lane's unison vocals. Singing lyrics that humorously articulated teenage-like obsessions with boys, social media and identity, Nordeen and Lane fanned the girly experience with vocals reminiscent of the Waitresses, the Go-Go's and other 1980s female-led pop groups. The free-spirited heart of the songs, however, was Schlesinger and Wentworth's sparse synthesizer and drums accompaniment, which wrapped and amped retro new-wave electro-pop melodies. The show was playfully perky and colorfully campy, and might click well both with pop and cabaret audiences.

Visit Fever High at www.feverhigh.com.