The Warp duo bring their reactivated live show to Dublin, Belfast and Galway in January, six months on from a Beyond The Pale set that stole the weekend.
The Sabres Of Paradise are coming back to Ireland. Jagz Kooner and Gary Burns have announced three shows here in January 2027, the first ever headline dates the group has played on the island.
- Friday January 29th: Button Factory, Dublin
- Saturday January 30th: Black Box, Belfast
- Sunday January 31st: Róisín Dubh, Galway (bank holiday Sunday)
Tickets go on sale this Friday August 28th at 10am, plus fees.
Their previous Irish appearance was at Beyond The Pale in June, where they played the Saturday of the Glendalough Estate weekend and ended up on a lot of people’s highlight lists once the dust settled.
We flagged them ahead of time as one of the 5 Irish festival debuts not to miss at Beyond The Pale 2026, describing the current live show as an emotional and heavily atmospheric tribute to Andrew Weatherall, performed by surviving studio members Kooner and Burns and friends in a five-piece band that translates the 90s Warp catalogue of dubbed-out textures, acid house, techno and post-rave ambience straight into the present.
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The Sabres Of Paradise formed in London in 1992, with Weatherall alongside studio foils Kooner and Burns. Across two albums for Warp, Sabresonic in 1993 and Haunted Dancehall in 1994, they pulled dub, techno, ambient and post-punk into something murkier and more cinematic than most of what surrounded it. ‘Smokebelch II’ remains one of the most affecting pieces of electronic music anyone made that decade.
They were also a genuine live band, with Kooner and Burns pulling in Phil Mossman, Nick Abnett and Rich Thair to play the material properly rather than press play on it. The same players are back in the ranks now.
The group stopped in 1995, Weatherall died in 2020, and it was the reissue campaign for the two albums that eventually prompted Kooner and Burns to reactivate the project in 2024.
Ireland has been on the list for a while. Speaking to 909originals last year, Kooner said he was “getting it in the neck a bit” from people asking when the band would come over, and pointed back to the reaction they used to get playing David Holmes’ Sugar Sweet in Belfast in the 90s. That the Belfast date is on this run feels deliberate.
Worth noting too that Kooner has been clear the reformation was never meant to run forever. There is a finite amount of this, and three nights in January is a decent chunk of what is left.
The Sabres Of Paradise play Button Factory, Dublin on Friday January 29th, Black Box, Belfast on Saturday January 30th and Róisín Dubh, Galway on Sunday January 31st. Tickets on sale Friday August 28th at 10am, plus fees.
Niall Byrne is the founder of the most-influential Irish music site Nialler9, where he has been writing about music since 2005. He is the co-host of the Nialler9 Podcast and has written for the Irish Times, Irish Independent, Sunday Times, Totally Dublin, Cara Magazine, Red Bull and more. Niall is a DJ, co-founder of Lumo Club, event curator, Indie Sleaze club promoter, and producer of gigs and monthly listening parties & events in Dublin.
