Review: The Tea Party at Perth Concert Hall

The Tea Party at Perth Concert Hall
w/ Human Kebab
Sunday, June 16, 2024

Toronto rock mystics The Tea Party and Australia have had a long love affair with each other. Since way back in the mid-90s, when their breakout album The Edges of Twilight hit, we’ve always been their second home outside of Canada, with a dedicated following. Frontman, songwriter, vocalist, and guitar slayer Jeff Martin himself has spent a great deal of time here with an Australian partner and children.

The Tea Party went their separate ways in 2005, though Martin continued to tour solo occasionally or with another backing band. Though it was never the same as the mighty trio of Martin, alongside Stuart Chatwood on bass/keyboards and Jeff Burrows on drums/percussion. The original line-up eventually reformed in 2011, touring sporadically again (with a big Australian reformation tour) and even releasing some new music.

After some time off since COVID, the band has fired up again, touring in celebration of the 25^th anniversary of TRIPtych, their fifth album released at the height of their fame. It was probably their most commercially successful album, covering the full range of their style and sound, from eastern-inspired hard rock groovers to more beautiful acoustic ballads, and spawning a Canada number one single in Heaven Coming Down.

With these anniversary tours, it’s hard to know what to expect from the setlist, but fans were not left disappointed, with the band playing an awesome selection of songs, including about half the feature album and a bunch of their biggest hits from their most-loved 90s albums, mashed together with a few choice covers.

The oddly chosen and even more oddly named support act, Human Kebab, is the moniker of DJ, producer, and sometimes rapper Jason Parsons. A fellow Canadian buddy of the band, he’s known for party sets of heavy bass dance music mixed with alternative rock and a hip-hop influence.

In the end, he actually did a great job providing some appropriate rockin’ vibes to warm up the rather fancy room. The lights were still up and it wasn’t too loud, so it was a perfect backdrop as people arrived and made their way into the hall or hung around in the foyer having a drink.

Mixing up a great set of 90s rock classics, Parsons used a vinyl control DJ/laptop setup, putting his own spin on each track, remixing them, or adding elements to great effect. He dropped tracks by The Smashing Pumpkins and The Verve, M.I.A.’s Paper Planes, and even some Butthole Surfers, getting on the mic to ask, “You guys want some bass?!” before dropping into the heavy chorus of Pepper.

He added a rumbling, squelchy synth to Weezer’s Say It Aint So and played an amazing, custom mashup of The Beatles’ Come Together with Nine Inch Nails’ Closer that even had some people grooving down the front. Human Kebab won over the crowd and finished with some big tracks, including Nirvana’s Lithium, and what better finale to get a crowd fired up than Rage Against the Machine’s Killing in the Name?

There was a brief break for a drinks run, and it was a motley older crew, mostly dressed in dark colours, who had descended upon the Concert Hall, but there was a real sense of excitement and enthusiasm for this much loved band, who are appreciated every time they grace us with a tour these days.

As soon as The Tea Party entered the stage, the roars went up! Taking their positions behind their respective instruments, Martin sat down and started plucking the strings of an exotic kind of lute, sending forth the familiar eastern sounds of the intro to arguably their greatest track from the TRIPtych album, The Halcyon Days. But when he stood up and strapped on his favourite Les Paul electric, things got real, as the band launched in proper.

Playing the fifth track off the album first, it became immediately clear that this wasn’t going to be one of those anniversary shows where the band plays the album from start to finish. But The Tea Party were never ones to do things by convention.

Straight off the bat, the band were sounding as great as ever. They are all amazing musicians who play with passion and intensity, and Martin’s deep, rich baritone was as powerful as ever. The magnificent, world-class acoustics of the Perth Concert Hall didn’t do them any harm either.

Martin still retains that rock star enigma—a prince of darkness who plays like a demon with a god-given gift for guitar. Fronting one of the best rhythm sections around – years of playing together have given them a tightness, with awesome guitar soaring over solid bass and percussion locking it down. All three wore black, Martin sporting his vintage look with dark, shaggy hair and immaculate Van Dyke beard as he strode around the stage, contrasting the more solemn Chatwood, sat behind his keyboards or standing firm with his bass in a wide brimmed hat, while Burrows was a dynamo behind his kit, blonde mop of hair bouncing to the beat.

But the focus is always on Martin – he has an intensity, swagger, and ego that would be verging on arrogance with all the pomp and ceremony if it weren’t for how good he and his band still are live. Such is his mastery of electric and acoustic guitar and other exotic instruments, incorporating a myriad of styles and scales, from rock and blues to folk and eastern melodies, it’s hard not to be impressed. 

“We have a lot to catch up on,” he mused, “but for now, let’s just play some rock and roll!” He urged the crowd to stand up, to which they willingly complied, thwarting the concert hall policy of a civilised sit-down affair and giving it a more relaxed rock concert vibe.

The band’s heavy, east-meets-west sound has been amusingly dubbed Moroccan-roll, and the next track was a great example of that, as they launched into the exotic sounds of The Bazaar from 1995’s The Edges of Twilight.

Martin discussed how to prepare for the tour; he had to spend some time listening to the album again to figure out who and where he was at the time. “Though without the acid and the mushrooms,” he joked.

He’s always been fond of the medley and the mashup—sections of songs leading into each other with passages of classic covers. Underground featured a seamless segue into Walk on the Wild Side by Lou Reed, while the dark majesty of one of their finest moments, Psychopomp, featured a scorching guitar solo that led into the epic guitar riff from Faith No More’s Epic, complete with the piano outro.

The Tea Party have always created full-spectrum, large-scale music that’s cinematic in scope, and this moment was a superb example. The prestigious venue, great lighting, and visual projections added to the grandness of the occasion.

Another clever trick was employed by Martin as he launched into a fine-sounding cover of Jeff Buckley’s Last Goodbye before blending it into The Messenger (which is actually a Daniel Lanois cover).

As an introduction to TRIPtych’s beautiful closing track, Gone, Martin talked about how it shows the nicer, gentler side of The Tea Party. They also played These Living Arms from the album—a track Martin said they hadn’t played in 20 years!

Then it was time to break out the bow and go all Jimmy Page on his guitar, and all Tea Party fans knew what that meant, along with the percussive intro, Save Me! One of their big early hits originally released on their 1991 self-titled debut demo album, they wove the track into Samsara and then back again.

Martin told the story of how he wrote Heaven Coming Down while fiddling around on his 12-string Rickenbacker in his trailer at a festival while waiting to come on. He immediately knew he had something special and rushed to the other guys’ trailer to announce, “I think I wrote our first number one!” They laughed at him at the time, but he was indeed correct! This track was also enhanced with a wonderful, inspired, and unexpected segue into U2’s classic With Or Without You.

They tore through the classic Temptation, sounding heavier than ever with its industrial beat and searing guitar riff, before leaving the stage. They were back soon, with Martin breaking out the acoustic for the impressive instrumental picking of early fan favourite Winter Solstice, which slowly sped up as the crowd clapped along and the rest of the band joined in.

It was left to their signature tune to finish the night—Sister Awake. It started off slow with its acoustic intro before breaking out into a percussive frenzy as Martin picked up a djembe and joined in. After the acoustic breakdown, he strapped on his Gibson again, asking the crowd, “You might have seen my acoustic solo shows… but you know what I miss? You wanna know what absolute power sounds like?!” before launching into the huge lead part.

Just when you thought that was a fitting climax, Martin the medley maestro swerved into a rendition of The Rolling Stones’ Paint It, Black, as well as a section of David Bowie’s Heroes, before merging back into Sister Awake for a triumphant finale!

As a final bow, Martin announced, “Jeff Burrows, one of the greatest drummers on the planet! Stuart Chatwood on bass and keyboards! And me.” The old camaraderie between them was evident. It’s great to have this amazing and unique trio back again. What a band!

ALFRED GORMAN

Photos by Anthony Jackson