On November 23, 1999, The Tea Party and Edwin played an excellent show at Massey Hall. The show was UNBELIEVABLE! i was originally there to see Edwin, and the Tea Party was just an added bonus, but i was totally won over in the second half of the show!
before the show, The Tea Party was appearing on Live In Toronto, so my sister, my cousin and I decided to go down to the edge (which is down the street from Massey Hall) so we could see the interview, and *maybe* meet the band. There were quite a few people there, and we arrived a little later than expected. Somehow, after the interview, i managed to get up to the top of the steps, and meet the band! First was Jeff Martin. I had 3 cd covers and an autograph book that i was going to get them to sign, so after jeff had finished the first two cds, he handed them back to me, and i said "oh, can you sign this too?" and he smiled and took it. then i asked "ooh! my autograph book..sorry, can you sign that?!" and he laughed and signed it, and said "and can you sign this? and can you sign this?!" (mimicking me, but it was really funny) so then i said "and can you sign my hand? and can you sign my shirt?!" and we all started laughing. and then i asked to take a picture with him, and he started laughing again :) so me and my cousin are taking a picture with him, and someone starts talking to him and Jeff goes "Excuse me, can you NOT bother me? i'm trying to do my work!" and everyone started laughing again...it was really cute!
next i took a picture with Jeff B. I had already handed my stuff up to him to be autographed earlier, but now i got to talk to him for a bit, which was nice :) I caught Stuart on the way out, so i kinda just got him to sign my stuff, and say hi...i didn't really have an enlightening conversation with him :) so then we decided to walk over to massey hall to wait in line to get in.
When we got there, i bought an autographed 8x10 of Edwin, for no apparent reason, cause i have his autograph about 20 times, from the dozens of times i've met him...i just needed memorabilia from the concert, and that was the cheapest! Then we went up to our seats...
edwin opened with and you, and he played (in no particular order): theories, trippin, hang ten, alive, rush, amazing, one more astronaut, and the song that didn't make the album (don't know what it's called, only heard it one time before). He looked great. First he was wearing a shirt, but then later he took it off, and he had his sparkly shirt from the And You video on, with his leather pants.
Then it came time for the Tea Party. They were absolutely captivating. It was such a beautiful show put on by them! The lighting and stage set up was AWESOME! and when they played Heaven coming Down and The Messenger for the encore, i swear i almost cried. Jeff Martin is so Soulful! in the middle of *i think* Sister Awake (but i could be wrong) he started playing a song called "Hallelujah" and it was incredible! the show put on by the tea party was BEYOND words!
someone posted all of the stories they told in between songs on a tea party newsgroup, so here it is:
-After the first song (army ants) Jeff M. started talking about how in the papers he was trashed for the first show because they said he talks too much at the shows.' less talk, more rock' He replied by saying he just wants everyone to know where the songs are coming from (he also talked a lot!! during this show)
-Before 'Great Big Lie' which was done really differently from the album. Jeff M. wanted to wish everyone in the crowd a happy millennium (or something like that), then he said he hopes that for the new year, most of the major religions of the world are wiped off the planet, so everyone can have spiritual freedom.
-before 'Fire in the head' he started a story- back in 1995 I was at Glastonbury, I was walking around smokin some weed, when I met the very beautiful woman. and we started to make love, right there in the field in front of everyone, and I wrote this song about it then the song starts
-during "Fire in the head" the quiet intro everyone started to clap with Jeff's playing but soon everyone's timing was off, and just before the heavy part started Jeff says into the mic" your off time" (laughingly)
-Before 'Gone', Jeff M. he asked the crowd if anyone think's they have founds there soulmate, then he said this song is about the one what got away. Then the weirdest thing happens, a string quartet comes on stage! to play this song with Jeff, it sounded really good even though the violin player had sound problems (the problem was that there was no sound) upto his solo part, then it was fixed.
-The story before 'Psychopomp' was this: a long time ago a man and a woman fell deeply in love, but then the devil got involved and took the woman down to hell with him, but the man wasn't going to give up so he followed them down to hell, once there he made a deal with the devil and was then able to take the woman back to the world as long as he never looked at her, on there way back up, but he loved her so much he looked back at her, to just see her .... fade away. (I hope I didn't kill that story, so of it might not be right)
-Before 'Release' Jeff M. explained more about the song instead of just saying it was an apology. This is what he said as close as I can remember "Back in 1997 when we were recorded transmission we were not happy guys, and were going through a real mean streak, and during this I was not very nice at all to my girlfriend of the time. so this song an apology to her for the crap that I gave her during that time.
-told everyone to get out of there seats every once in a while saying stuff like, god your asses must hurt by now! get up!
-Jeff (the drummer Jeff) was the first back on stage for the encore, and he brought a camera with him, he walked up to the mic and started talking, about turning on the lights on the crowd then he started taking pictures, about 6 or 7 in all. Jeff M. then came up to the mic and said 'never give that man the stage' (jokingly). Then HCD started and every got up and started dancing.
-next was 'The Messenger' and the string quartet came back out on stage and everyone was singing along to this song it was amazing!