Music > Live Reviews

Maverick Sabre

28/10/14

Maverick Sabre – Norwich Waterfront 26/10/14

I must confess from the start, that this gig represents a bit of a departure from my own personal comfort zone. Normally the shows I frequent are populated almost exclusively by males in leather jackets on the high side of thirty, all head-banging along to guitar driven rock music. Recently, however, I have decided to set myself on a voyage of musical discovery. As such, when I heard that there was this chap called Maverick, who was an English/Irish performer that specialises in hip hop/folk/R&B fusion, I thought of all the boxes that would tick, and set off to see Mr Sabre in action.

Being the professional writing-merchant that I am, I had been listening to/reading up on Maverick beforehand, so I knew a few things. The main points were that his first album, Lonely are the Brave, was extremely popular. I also knew that he hadn’t released any new material for about two years, but has recently released a single (Emotion) with a new album to follow. The break doesn’t seem to have knocked his fan base any, as there were plenty of people there, and as soon as he hit the stage, the young and the beautiful of Norwich got down to business.

And business was good, as Maverick soon whipped the crowd up with a few choice tracks from the first album to get everyone singing along and dancing. He clearly knew what he was doing as he alternated between acoustic tunes and lively, upbeat numbers to mix it up for the crowd. The old favourites were apparent as the crowd new every word, but got equally excited when he played some new tracks, including his new single Lay Your Head.

He may be a Maverick when it comes to merging genres but, musically, there wasn’t a note out of place as Mr Sabre worked the crowd and it was obvious that a good time was had by all when he finished off with firm crowd favourite, I Need. All in all it was energetic, original and with more than a whiff of zeitgeist about it. On stage certainly appears to be where he’s at his best, so I’d recommend you catch him soon if you get the chance.

Smiley