90's 'Moroccan roll' (I see what they did there!) band The Tea Party reunited and played their first show in Brisbane for eight years. I half expected them to be doing the same as a lot of other 'classic' bands have been doing of late and playing one or two 'classic' albums in full. For some reason I never had the fear that this reunion tour could go pear shaped and was confident they'd been playing the best of the best. After witnessing the first song, two words popped into my head. Oh. Shit. This was going to be a good night. I wasn't wrong.
The
setlist for the night was a best-of with tracks pulled from all of the bands records except for their latest, Seven Circles. The majority featured were from The Edges Of Twilight which was sure to please the older fans of which there were many present tonight. The band were on fire and there was no sign of Jeff Martin's cold which he'd mentioned he was recovering from at a previous gig on this tour.
Anyone familiar with The Tea Party live show experience will tell you about the variety of instruments that usually make an appearance, and tonight was no different. Jeff Martin moved through his usual array of electric and acoustic guitars (I counted at least four), including a
double neck Gibson, and
playing slide on 'Sun Going Down' (lifted from the bands first album which was released more than twenty years ago now!), always playing them with the fevour The Tea Party's songs inspire. At one point Jeff was
playing an electric guitar with a bow emulating Jimmy Page; an obvious influence on the band's sound. A theremin made an appearance, but obscure instrument of the night goes to the
esraj played at the beginning of Save Me.
Jeff Burrows showcased his drumming chops throughout the gig
excelling during the bands cover of the Rolling Stone's 'Paint It Black' and mixed it up with some
tabla action and even
taking to the cymbals with his bare hands during their audience-rousing rendition of 'Winter Solstice'.
Stuart Chatwood was getting heavy on the bass right from the
opening notes of their first song 'The River'' before switching to the keys to play
*that* melody for 'Psychopomp', and also joined Jeff Martin on the acoustic for the bluesy Led Zepplin cover
'Nobody's Fault But Mine'. The
eerily tragic sound of the mandolin made a welcome appearance for 'Shadows on the mountainside' and Stuart seemed to be playing with
some box looking thing (that's what they call it in the industry, trust me) during 'Winter Solstice'.
I captured stuff from every song played except for Zahira (perfect time to go to the bar *cough*) and they've all been uploaded here for your viewing pleasure:
http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL63AB0CB5E3C9CFCE
After the gig I read that the band were recording this tour for a crowd-funded double live album so if you enjoy my videos then imagine how great the professionally recorded and mixed album will sound! I encourage you to pledge toward helping fund the album, and if you're that way inclined you can pick up some special The Tea Party items or live experience packages whilst you're at it
http://www.pledgemusic.com/projects/theteapartylive. I wasn't sure about uploading the videos given they would be potentially using some of these songs on the album so I got in touch with the official website and was told it shouldn't be a problem (unless I hear otherwise).
