An Intimate Night with Jeff Martin (and Ridesh Das)

When a gig is billed as an "intimate night", as our evening with former Tea Party front man Jeff Martin was, there are always reservations and expectations. I saw his band in full flight a few years ago so I wondered how the lack of electric instruments would affect the power of the songs. Further to that was the question of how "intimate" the night would really be? What would the Canadian's personality reveal? The Venue in Salamanca had been done up since the last gig I saw there a few years ago and it seemed more warm and friendly than I recalled, with fairy lights adorning its beams. Upon arriving, already from the stairs, the smooth and sweet sounds of local songwriter Dean Stevenson could be heard. After his set another Hobart native, Waiter's front man Stratos Roussos, stepped up to the stage and tuned up his twelve string guitar. The first words of his opening song were in Greek and unaccompanied. It was confronting and immediately grabbed the crowd's attention. Whilst performing the seven songs of his set he used his entire body, stomping his feet and writhing around the stage singing with absolute conviction. He chose a mixture of solo and Waiter originals and offered a unique take on the Louis Armstrong tune, St. James Infirmary Blues. Roussos writes thought provoking lyrics and together with his energy he is a cross between Bob Dylan and Matthew Bellamy from Muse, his use of the harmonica adding to the comparison of the former. In between songs he was instantly likeable and humble, thanking the audience for coming along early to see the local support acts. He seemed surprised by the crowd reaction telling us "you guys are cool" and further played up to it by getting us to sing along in one of the choruses. Toward the end of his last song, 'Maintain Maintenance', he dropped his pick but continued strumming vigorously sans-plectrum, not missing a beat.

After Roussos departed the stage, the incense and the candles were lit for Jeff Martin's imminent arrival. He came on at ten followed by a short indigenous man who looked not unlike Carlos Santana. The latter was the tabla player Ritesh Das. Sitting down on a stool and getting comfortable Jeff apologised for not returning to Tasmania sooner but assured the audience that the reasons for this would be explained as the night progressed through "music and laughter".

From one of The Tea Party's popular albums, The Edges of Twilight, he picked the familiar strains of 'The Bazaar' evoking a roar from the audience and commenced the night proper. The majority of his set list came from the band's albums, only choosing two songs from his solo effort, Exile and the Kingdom. My concerns regarding the lack of power were allayed with Jeff's commanding voice and guitar playing providing more than adequate emotion to the songs. Ritesh Das, sitting cross legged for the whole of the night on a slight platform, added depth to the music with his vigorous and exact percussion work. Martin made the accurate observation that "tabla was a language unto itself", for the drums did indeed seem to speak. It was disappointing that Das did not get more chance to show off his talents more prominently. A few songs into his set Martin asked the crowd if they were enjoying themselves. An affirmative response came in the form of clapping, cheers and whoops.

As promised, he delved into his life, speaking and singing about living in Ireland, the birth of his son and losing people that were close to him. One of these people was Jeff Buckley and in tribute he performed excellent versions of 'Last Goodbye' and 'Hallelujah' together as a medley which then morphed into 'Messenger' with a slight interlude of Bowie's 'We Could Be Heroes'.

An attempt at crowd participation with a break down of Lou Reed's 'Walk on the Side' during the song 'Lament' was moot. The coloured girls did not sing "doo doo-doo doo-doo". But Martin soon got the audience back on side with a blues song with lyrics rooted deep in the tradition; borrowing lyrics from Kansas Joe McCoy and Blind Willie Johnson (or maybe just Led Zeppelin) as well as adding his own pleas with St. Peter.

During the night, flaccid microphone problems plagued the live sound team due to Martin's heavy foot stomping. This issue effected Das in particular with his microphones constantly being adjusted. However, although he seemed justifiably a little frustrated, he took it all with good humour. I expected the show to be a lot darker but both musicians were in good spirits trading public and private jokes throughout the night. Martin told many personal anecdotes about his time of being a "Rock Star" with The Tea Party and was especially emotional when he spoke about the death of his manager and followed it up with the song he wrote about this event (Oceans). Although he appeared to be genuine you could not help wondering if his glory days had affected his ego.

The audience reacted well to the whole night with many people moving in time (dancing would be too strong a word) while others just sat, content to let the intense music wash over them. The biggest reaction came during the final song before the encore, 'Temptation', with everybody joining in the chorus. This was followed by the two men indulging in a short percussion jam and then leaving the stage. After waiting the appropriate amount of time for the "We Want More" chants to saturate the venue they returned with a rendition of 'Winter Solstice' and then finished the night in soulful style: a cover of 'Love the One You're With'.

With some artists, after a night of song, you feel like you have known them all your life. But, when it was all over, I felt some distance between myself and the man Jeff Martin, feeling I was still acquainted only with his stage persona. Having said that, it was an excellent night musically, with the guitar and tabla both played skilfully but the most powerful instrument of all was, of course, Martin's deep trademark voice.

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