Managed to avoid the crowds tonight and got into
the academy trouble free for the second night
running, result!
Maverick Saber opens set on his own with a acoustic
song, real simple guitar work, but a great voice
with a little gravel in it, it's top stuff. When
we are kings come back out on stage minus a singer
and play as the backing band to Maverick Sabre.
It's more simple stuff with more emphasis on the
drums with more of a grove to it. The singer is
really good but he sounds like to many other singer
song writers at moment, so his voice is t really
unique, the music is good but it's a tad bland
as well, just not digging it really, the main
reason for this is his voice get on me nerves,
sitting in the exact same way for every song too
many yeah yeah yeahs, oh oh ohs, an no no nos,
there are other words in the English Language
to describe what your singing about!
After being introduced by SFX, after his human
beat box medley performance, Plan B AKA Ben Drew
+ band make their way to the stage, he opens to
a massive roar from the crowd, and opens with
writings on the wall, then precedes to perform
some of the album, switching around welcome to
hell and she said. I then made my way to the back
of the sold out academy 2, there's a lot of goings
5 or 6 songs into the set, can’t people
last an hour and a half without a fag? No dedication
by the fickle pop fans tonight! There also seems
to be a lot of chatter can't people just shut
up for an hour too? Plan b has real stage presence,
strutting about in his I imagine tailor made gray
suit! Dark of faith, 3rd time performed live,
and it's not meant to offend the religious folks
in the crowd. The guy has got a decent voice switching
from rap to singing, the rapping is nothing too
clever, but the set, like the album is telling
a story of a man put away! It's been described
as northern soul, but for some of it, it feels
flat and soulless. It's a good gig, with the diehard
fans wanting the older stuff, but I imagine that
a lot were here off the back of she said, which
is by far the stand out track! Coming up easy,
Paulo Nutini the Plan B way! Not a bad cover,
it's full of life and is bouncy and gets the crowd
going again! They Finish the main set with 'what
you gonna do'. SFX makes his way on to the stage
for a few seconds, then into the encore with piano
based song Charmine. with the crowd singing and
rapping along to most of it! Then it's back on
with SFX for ain't no sunshine when she's gone,
well he's own beat box version of it, then Plan
B joins in half way through, they end up playing
a medley of songs, I guess the crowd are getting
there monies worth tonight! It’s a good
gig, but not as good as everyone was saying, being
that he could be the next big thing, talented
yes, next big thing, I don’t know, I don’t
like the hype machine!
Maverick Saber 3/5
Plan B 4/5
Review By Robert Lawrence
|
