A very chilled and partially seated crowd at the Esplanade Gershwin room warmly greeted Jeff Martin as he graced the stage. Playing as part of a two piece tonight with accomplished Australian drummer Terepai Richmond (formerly of d.i.g and The Whitlams), the Canadian singer/songwriter/guitarist—best known for his band The Tea Party—has very much made Australia his second home over the years since his former band split up.
Tonight was a wonderful showcase of both his solo work and a very strong selection of Tea Party tracks. It was a very heartening experience to hear Martin’s songs, especially those of The Tea Party, stripped back to their bare bones. There was a wonderful sense of warmth and cameraderie amongst the crowd.
Martin, even seated while playing, has a wonderful sense of charm and charisma on stage. He expressed his love for Melbourne generally and, in particular, the Esplanade Hotel, as The Tea Party had, many years ago, played one of their firstr Australian concerts there.
The two piece approach worked beautifully tonight. This was a chance to truly witness both Martin’s fantastic voice which, despite a self-confessed head cold this evening, sounded better than ever. The other quality that was strongly in evidence was Martin’s incredible ability as a guitarist. It is, at times, an utter joy to see and hear this man do his thing. He has such a wonderful sense of tone and feel with how he plays, especially since tonight consisted of acoustic guitar playing rather than electric guitars.
A musical high point included ‘The Rosary’, dedicated to Martin’s grandmother. Tea Party tracks, such as ‘The Messenger’, ‘Requiem’ and ‘The Bazaar’, sounded fantastic in this context. This scribe loved the way that Martin would go off on tangents and move into other tracks and partial cover versions while playing, such as how he and Terepai went into a version of the Nine Inch Nails track ‘Hurt’ in the middle of ‘Requiem’ and eventually came back to the original song. In other hands, this would come off as obvious and trite. However, that wasn’t the case this evening.
All in all, a wonderful night from a fantastic artist still truly in love with music in all its shapes and forms.
– Neil Evans
