and
Caves House in Yallingup on Friday 19th January.
Jeff
Martin will return to the Fly by Night to play
two shows on Friday January 12, and Saturday January
13.
Jeff
Martin is a haunting artist who's fascination with eastern
tunings and instruments, love of rock n roll, and deeply
internal lyrics, makes him a powerful performer.
As songwriter,
singer, producer and guitarist with the Tea Party, Jeff
Martin sought to buck the trend of dumbing down the music
for quick commercial gratification. Instead, he continues
to follow his inner voice, which speaks to him of the
importance of melody, dynamics, musicianship and the manipulation
of light and shade.
As
a solo artist, Jeff is able to draw deeper from this
same well
of inspiration. It is, after all, a well he has dug himself.
Make
no mistake this is still full-on Jeff Martin music
that draws inspiration and instrumentation from around
the globe.
Martin’s
music has endeared itself to a rabid fan base on the
strength of its rich palette of color and sheer adventurous
scope. Add to this, the marathon live shows captained
by Jeff’s elegant and powerful voice, as the
front man of The Tea Party
The
new music bears the same markings as the songs he penned
and recorded with Tea Party collaborators Jeff Burrows
and Stuart Chatwood, but with a tempered confidence
and maturity as writer, storyteller and listener of
his muse.
Jeff’s
life lessons as husband and father have lent weight
to the songs, added depth and conviction to the lyrics,
harmonic density and arrangements.
Tickets
are available now through Mills Records and 78 Records
and online through heatseeker.com.au
Cost:
$25+BF (the Fly) or $50+bf (Caves House)
Doors Open at 8pm
BACKSTAGE
REPORT from Kat:
Where
to start? Bloody awesome trio of gigs, which we were honoured
to have VJ'd at. So much to say... and so tired! It's been
a long, busy week. We were both injured in a scooter
accident in between the gigs and incredibly lucky to
have been OK to finish the last gig. My poor 1972 Vespa
is a crumpled mess :(
We
knew it would be a special opportunity for us to use
the sort of material we love to use when Jeff Martin asked
us before the gigs 'Do you have any visuals with esoteric
symbolism?'. After picking ourselves up off the floor,
I explained out that I'm the author of Golden
Tarot, so
pretty familiar with symbolism, and that we collect Surrealist
and Expressionist cinema of the 20's and 30's. Talk about
the right VJ-artist match :)
Jeff
also generously let us film all three concerts. To be
honest, although we have the equipment we're pretty crappy
at filming live gigs, and also we've realised that it's
impossible to VJ well
AND
to
video
a concert. So, we had our incredibly talented friend Neil
Innes take over the filming side
of things, assisted by Greg Bruyer at the Fly concerts
and VJ
Chikitronix at
Caves House. He'll be editing together a couple of tracks
from the concerts
which we'll give to Jeff to put online or whatever he
decides he'd like to do with them.
Kenji
regularly busks around Fremantle, and is also Jeff's
Guitar tech for the tour. His set each time was
a lovely, somewhat sad and gentle affair. His on-stage
presence is as unaffected and sincere as his 2am lounge-room
serenade to the crew as we sat around in
our PJs at the Band House the night before the Caves
House gig.
Nathan
Gaunt's set was a bit more up-tempo, although also
with a heart-felt Jeff Buckley cover. What is it with Jeff
Buckley
and this tour? It's like he's haunting it... I think Kenji,
Nathan and Jeff Martin ALL played at least one Jeff Buckley
song over the three nights! I guess since Jeff Martin and
Jeff Buckley were pals, it's not quite so sacreligious
to cover his songs - more of a loving tribute than a recycling
of a popular tune...
In
the usual tradition of my Backstage Reports, I'll give
all the goss on the tech side of things... It's so
great to work with a team you know well, and who really
work as a team. These gigs (even the one at Caves House)
were organised by John Reid of the Fly By Night Club,
and so the Sound and Lighting were done by Fly regulars
Rick and Ursula respectively. Both are an absolute
pleasure to work with.
Ursula
kindly altered the lighting after the first night
(low red and yellow lights look pretty, but are a
bugger to try to shoot video in), so we could get
better video on the second and third gigs, which
also had the spinoff that
the
web is
awash
with great photos by fans, as the lighting on Jeff
was
really good for shooting.
Also,
Rick went to considerable trouble to make sure we
had good sound-desk audio into
our recording desk - which will make a big difference
to the quality of the video we end up giving to Jeff.
It
was too windy at Caves House for us to use screens,
so we just projected straight on to the building.
Not great for subtle detail, but it looked really
cool. We also liked the idea of projecting Art-deco
era footage onto an Art-deco era building :)
Ritesh,
Hobbsy and Mal (?) played with Jeff, and and all were
brilliant. Since we didn't get too many photos, we
harvested
some screenshots from our video... and
so much more to tell.... Or you could just read a
Review....
At each concert, the audience was absolutely entranced by
Jeff - as you can see...
It
was just one of those Caves House moments. You know the
ones, when the sun's shining golden light onto the
leaves, the sea breeze is rolling in, the music is gorgeous
and you're just so glad it's summer.
Acoustic soloist Kenji set the mood with sweet melodic
laments. His late afternoon set gaining steady momentum until
it's climax, a beautifully delivered rendition of the classic
gob-stopper 'Hallelujah' that consolidated those gathered
in the leafy grounds into audience mode.
Next
up was Nathan Gaunt. His casual banter worked its usual
friendly magic on the crowd as he took it to the
next level with a swathe of songs from his latest release
Headlights on the Hills, as well as some well chosen and
well twisted covers. The dulcet crooner got busy displaying
his incredible vocal range and versatility wowing the crowd
as VJzoo began weaving a magical spell of their own.
In case you're wondering, VJzoo are a couple of Perth
VJ's (Visuals Jockeys, as in DJ) who've spent the last three
years gaining themselves as international reputation as creators
of live cinema (see VJzoo.com). They made the road trip down
south on Jeff Martin's invitation, after blowing him away
with their endless vault of evocative retro footage at
his Fly By Night gig the previous weekend.
As the sun sank and McNaught's Comet followed in the twilight
sky, VJzoo's lush and exotic picture show appeared ghostlike
on the heritage walls. It was an alfresco cinematic fresco
of the rare, the eccentric, the ornate and outrageous that
brought the old walls to life. While Nathan plucked and
strummed up an intercontinental euphonious storm, they
traversed the olde world with images of gritty guitar slingers
from Calcutta to Tijuana, supplying perfect visual dramatisations
for his aural explorations. Then a moment of pure poetry
in brick - as Nathan was busy ripping up Pink Floyd's 'The
Wall' VJzoo covered the Caves House walls with 1940's sex
education footage. Seriously, leave those kids alone!
Then
of course there was Jeff Martin. The ex-frontman of power
melancholy goth rockers The Tea Party's commanding
prescence had the eager mob of adoring fans captivated
from the moment he stepped on stage. Expertly backed by
master Indian-tabla player Ritesh Das and rock drummer
Malcolm Clarke (of Sleepy Jackson and End of Fashion fame)
on Djembe, Jeff went straight to the heart of the matter,
satisfying the hardcore fans who sang along to almost every
word from woe to go.
The awesome threesome set sail into deep, dark lands with
a diverse set of heartfelt songs. An absolute master of
his craft, Jeff served up an intense show, delivered with
conviction.
The touching highlight came when Jeff sang 'Daystar' to
his two year old son Django, seen earlier dancing around
in a 'my dad rocks' t-shirt. Jeff introduced the song by
informing us that Django was up in a room above waiting
for daddy to sing this one before going to sleep. At the
end of the song, Django appeared in the window above as
the whole crowd serenaded in support of a father's love....
awwwww.
