Max Savage – Nobody Knows My Name: After All, This Is The Blues ~ Adelaide Cabaret Festival 2019 Review

[WORLD PREMIERE ~ AUS ~ IF YOU LOVE… A CURVE BALL] The Famous Spiegeltent, Adelaide Festival Centre, Sun 16 Jun. Within the intimate walls of The Famous Spiegeltent on a brisk Sunday evening at the Adelaide Cabaret Festival, the stage fills with a collective of talented Adelaide musicians led by the equally gifted Max Savage who rasps the words, “You’ve gotta fall on hard times to get you through,” setting the foundations for a mesmerising journey into the underbelly of this fine city’s nightlife and urban uniqueness. “On Friday night we play the Blues. On Saturday, we’re guns for hire. But it’s Sunday night, in the middle of Winter and we’re all still here.” Not your usual audience banter between songs, but a flowing stream of soul-inspired spoken word, smooth slam poetry and jazz-tinged hip-hop which permeated our minds as the stream of original songs lead us away to wherever they wanted to take us. With a Joe Cocker-esque swagger and a soothing Tom Waits growl, Savage held all ears as he shared stories of love and wine, whiskey and stars, and those just-out-of-reach women that he can’t help but fall in love with; after all, this is the blues. The band – consisting of Kyrie Anderson on drums, Django Rowe and Tom Kneebone on guitars, Kiah Gossner on bass and Brenton Foster on piano – don’t miss a beat. This is where broken hearts go to fade in the wine, where the soul is swept away by the piano and upright bass as they caress the soundwaves while the guitars leave a lasting impression; every talent has their moment to shine. And like crazy beautiful diamonds, they glisten in the smoky haze, wrapped in the soft lighting of the mirrored room and in the appreciation of every eye upon them. Savage shone in a solo moment and an a Cappella ballad where he reminisced, “Take me back to Mawson Street,” which was just one song in a night filled with original tunes about this City of Churches. There were moments of familiarity and of sadness and loss of broken dreams and longing. Some came not knowing what to expect, yet experienced more raw emotion that they maybe bargained for – in a good way. As the evening drew to a close, Max Savage And The False Idols performed what was nothing short of a ‘shit hot’ rendition of Eric Clapton’s After Midnight. The band blew the collective minds of the audience. Although this show was written specifically for the Cabaret Festival, it’s a grand thing to know that they are local and so can be seen again and again. Do it! And then do it again. Max Savage and band are nothing short of a 5-star kind of awesome! 5 stars Catherine Blanch FB: @adelaidecabaretfestival TW: @AdelaideCabaret IG: @adelaidecabaret #adcabfest Image courtesy of Max Moore