Jeff Martin at The Big Sky Showroom in The New Stampede Casino – August 23, 2008
by Jillie
Calgary, Alberta
Ah, Jeff Martin. When I started listening to "real" music (as opposed to listening to whatever my parents were listening to, which was, sadly, mostly country) I had two favouritest bands in the whole wide world. Our Lady Peace is my all time favourite. The Tea Party is a close second.
I have always been entranced by their unique mix of hard rock guitars and the Eastern-inspired licks in their music. Lead singer Jeff Martin’s voice is reminiscent of the late Jim Morrison and he is one of the greatest guitarists in the world. Time after time I had an opportunity to see the band live and every time I had to pass it up, saying to myself, "they’ll come around again!" Just months after the last concert I missed, in October 2005, The Tea Party disbanded and I thought I would never have the privilege of seeing these songs that I loved so much performed live.
…until early in 2006 when Jeff Martin released a solo album! Yay!
Needless to say, I have waited a heck of a long time to see this concert, and although it was not the hard rock indulgence I had dreamed of I was not disappointed in the least bit.
This concert was held in a small venue at the back of the Stampede Casino on the Saddledome campus in Calgary, Alberta. The place could not have seated more than 200 people. On stage there was an elaborate drum set up to the side with every drum from every ethnicity you can imagine, and, in the middle, a stool and a microphone.
Out came Jeff Martin and his drummer, Wayne Sheehy to perform an hour and three quarters of acoustic wonderfulness. Martin sang mostly old Tea Party songs – "The Bazaar", "Winter Solstice", a great "Requiem/Psychopomp" combo, and "Release" to name a few. He did a great rendition of "The Messenger", a song that is actually not one of my favourite but certainly won me over here. "Save Me" was a sing-along with the crowd. Jeff talked briefly before most songs, giving a little hint of the back story. He started off "Lament" by noting his recent move to Ireland (to live with his model wife in a castle, I might add) and how it has changed his outlook on life, and interjected into the song a very interesting rendition of the chorus of Led Zeppelin’s "Whole Lotta Love." Martin then mentioned he and Sheehy are coming out with a new album soon with their new band, The Armada, and performed a song that will appear on that album (I didn’t catch the title). He noted that "The Kingdom" from his solo album Exile and the Kingdom was a tribute to the trials and tribulations of breaking up a band.
Martin switched back and forth between the traditional six string acoustic to a twelve string for the more Eastern-sounding of the songs. I and the two boys I was with were awed at this man’s guitar skills and Sheehy was a madman on the drums – using sticks, brushes and his hand to beat out a rhythm on snares, bass drum, cymbals and several kinds of bongos (don’t’ know the technical term for those – haha), as well as two Celtic-style drums. Martin and Sheehy even had a bongo drum off which was super cool. The light show was simple but neat, like the instrumentation and music itself.
The duo ended the official set with an improved piece of blues (which was pretty cheesy and funny) that went into "Black Snake Blues," a blues song, again, off his solo album, and simply rocked the socks off everyone in the house. Several patrons left their seats and crowded at the front of the stage in a mini mosh pit.
Martin and Sheehy left but came back after no one stopped applauding and cheering. They performed an extended version of "Sister Awake," which was amazing.
The boys and I left the concert fully satisfied and I am so happy I finally got to see the last of my all time favourites in concert. I am sooo looking forward to the new album and maybe a new not-so-acoustic tour.
The only thing I was disappointed with, besides the shortness of the set (which I guess wasn’t really that short, but there were no opening bands and the encore was only one song when most bands do three or four) was that there was no merch booth! Ah! I frame all my tickets with some souvenir from the show, usually a sticker or a poster (which, in the case of The Trews, I sometimes steal from the walls at the University of Calgary – eep!), and on occasion I buy shirts to hang on my wall for my all time favourite bands (this would be one of them!) but there was no merchandise anywhere! So I stole a "This Seat Is Taken" thing from the casino and kept my alcohol-allowed wrist band. That will have to do, I guess. Had I known there would be no merch, I would have stolen a poster from the Epeland Center in Medicine Hat, where Martin is playing tonight, when I was there last weekend setting up a wedding for my DJ company.
Anyway, great concert! Look for the new album to come out in October (I think) if you are a fan of Tea Party’s or Jeff Martin’s.
On a sad note, this is the last concert I had tickets for for the rest of the summer, so it’s off to Ticketmaster to see what stuff is coming up in the fall!
So, until next concert;
Jillie
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