Tea Party

Normally when I am at a show I am itching to come home to write the review, however, in this case it took me a good 5 days to even write the draft notes on the bus for this one. I wasn’t even going to write about this one at all.
It was good to see Jeff Martin, Jeff Burrows and Stuart Chatwood on stage celebrating an album that was part of my childhood. It honestly didn’t have as large of an impact as it did with some of my friends but it was up there with other notable recordings of the decade in Canadian alternative music.
The band played their Edges of Twilight album in full plus a few other songs after a short intermission.
That album birthed 4 successful singles, an accomplishment that would be considered a challenge by today’s standards by any band. It was a good chance to hear some of the album tracks for the first time. Some were pre rehearsed while others sounded winged.
The wall that blocked me from being a Tea Party super fan then and now beyond appreciating their music on a surface has always been Jeff Martin’s ego.
He’s a bit of an anal perfectionist that has trouble in seeing the humour in situations. He’s mildly improved, however, based on the stage banter, body language and off stage communication methods he’s still the same person he was 20 years ago who still creates that intentional disconnect. He’s never been able to come across as humble.
The band played the songs as assigned but the stage chemistry between was very odd, cold and forced. This was obvious when the band came out before the encore to sing Happy Birthday to Jeff whom pretended to be humbled by the gesture.
The show itself was great. The sound mix was amazing. The band even went the extra mile to provide some projected visual elements missed at their Bellingham show.
Aside from the Jimmy Page wannabe bow and guitar 6 minutes jack off session, the encore set lived up to their reputation. They did execute the Zeppelin covers better than Robert Plant himself has done lately.
The show itself was great and I loved hearing the songs. On the technical level the notes were played flawlessly.
The audience was surprisingly well behaved. The numbers were very thin. This surprised me considering that this was a weekend show. The casino even provided a free shuttle to and from the venue from the train station, therefore, there was no excuse about transit.
Souvenirs were lacking, especially, for somethings that’s supposed to be a 20^th anniversary of.