Jeff Martin of The Tea Party played to a packed house this past weekend, at the Imperial Vancouver… looking around the room as he sat on a stool with his guitar, he likened it to being in his living room.. a larger version of his living room, which garnered laughs and claps, and so began an evening of music and stories.
‘The Bazaar’ made the set list early on (yes!) and Martin introduced a new song with a personal story of losing a friend to a short hard battle with cancer this year… telling the audience, “we’ve all lost someone dear. I’m dedicating this to all of us who have lost.” Part way into the song, it morphed and changed to a cover of ‘I Hurt Myself’ and then back into Martin’s own song. It was moving, and powerfully sung and you could tell it was very personal.
Jeff Martin has a new 5 song EP which is only available at these shows, and told the story of he and his wife being on holiday lying on the beach, and seeing how the sand glittered.. ‘honey did you know there are stars in the sand?’ and so was born the album title and idea. Martin mentioned his ‘lovely wife’ a few times, pointed to her in the audience and fairly glowed when looking at her.
Another story leading into a song was how as a brand new band, they were in Calgary and a “fan gave me some “fungus” which I ingested because we had a two day trip to Vancouver. I was so ingested that even I thought I was Jim Morrison” (referencing to always being compared to the legend for his looks and gravelly voice). The audience broke into laughter and on to the song.
About half way into the set, Martin brought out a special guest – fellow Tea Party bandmate Stu Chatwood, and the two did a guitar duo musical interlude that was epic. The more intimate laid back setting really allowed us to see what fine musicians these guys really are. Martin didn’t wear ear monitors at all for the entire performance and his voice was spot on and strong all evening.
A U2 cover made the set too! ‘With or Without You’ with stellar audience participation loud and almost perfect – we sang the chorus one verse too soon which earned us a laugh and ‘not yet guys’ from Martin who brought us back on track to finish the song out.
The evening rounded out with an encore and a hearty loud send off by us the audience, and I think Martin was as reluctant to leave as we were to have him go.
If you get a chance to see Jeff Martin solo – do it. If you aren’t near his tour city roster.. don’t stress it. He’s also told us that The Tea Party will be doing a Canadian tour in 2019!
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