EDGEFEST -- JULY 8, 1998
Commonwealth Stadium, Edmonton
On July 8, 1998, Edgefest '98 finally came to Edmonton. This section of our page is a review of The Tea Party's performance. Each of us were there, each of us took our own feelings from it, and therefore each of us is going to do a review.
After getting to the stadium at around noon, we decided to go as far up to the main stage as possible. We weren't going to miss our chance at seeing The Tea Party up close, even if it meant standing in the same general area for eight hours straight and getting slightly smushed. From where I was standing, I could see a good amount of the stage, and I was never more than five metres away from the bands.
During Creed's set (which was on the side stage), I hear my friend go, "Oh my god, there's Jeff Burrows!" I looked over to the side of the main stage (behind the Edgefest banner), and there was Jeff, leaning on a railing watching Creed perform.
The day wore on, the bands wore on, and The Tea Party's set moved ever closer. Finally, at nine o'clock, about 20 minutes after Green Day had finished performing, The Tea Party took the stage. The intensity of The Tea Party live can never really be described properly until you have experienced it first hand. Because of how close we were to them, the intensity on their faces was incredible and it is not hard to see why they are such a great live act -- they are incredible musicians.
The Party started off with 'The River', and played the following (this is not the proper order): 'The Bazaar', 'Fire in the Head', 'Psychopomp', 'Release', 'Save Me', 'Temptation'. Encore: 'Winter Solistice', 'Sister Awake'.
Their entire set lasted about an hour, but it seemed like 20 minutes. All I have to say as a final thought is this: if you ever get the chance to see The Tea Party perform live, DO NOT miss it. They will not disappoint you.
Hello, I'm going to kind of do a review of the whole Edgefest lineup. I didn't see all the bands, because we were staying at the main stage so we could be close to the front for The Tea Party. We stood in the same two square metres for about 8 hours, but it was so amazing when they finally came on stage, it was worth being crushed against that metal fence.
We saw Bif Naked first, the crowd seemed to enjoy it even though it was beginning to rain. Second was Holly McNarland, which I enjoyed even though I didn't think I would. Econoline Crush was awesome, but a big crusher. There was steam rising off the mosh pit because it was raining pretty hard. I didn't go there expecting them to be one of my favorite entertainers of the night, but their music was good and Trevor Hurst flashed me a smile. (I smiled back :)) Sloan was amazingly bad. I thought they would be better, the way everyone was building them up. Chris Murphy seemed more interested in posing for the cameras than performing. But they sped up near the end of their act, and got better. Now here's just about the most exciting time of my life: I was standing there waiting for the Foo Fighters to come on, listening to Creed on the smaller stage, when I glimpsed backstage, saw who turned out to be two members of Foo Fighters walking around. I didn't know then, but I looked again, and I saw Jeff Burrows walking to an area behind the Edgefest curtains that hang off the front of the stage. It was kind of quiet where we were standing, and I was too excited to control my voice, so I loudly exclaimed: "Oh my God!! There's Jeff Burrows!!" A few people turned around, but nobody else saw him, I could only see his hair, but I was pointing him out to my friends, and they figured out which shadow was his. He was standing at the side, leaning on a metal post (I assume), and watching Creed perform. I watched him for about 10-15 minutes, until he moved away and went off the stage. The Foo Fighters were good, but I couldn't enjoy it very easily, because of the hard metal fence jabbing into my ribs and finding it a tad hard to breathe. But I can't complain, what did I expect? Green Day was predictable. We had read some reviews of Edgefest and watched MuchMusic, and they did exactly what they were doing in all the other cities. Again, music was good, lung capacity was bad. Now The Tea Party, what we had been waiting for was better than I expected. It didn't seem like a whole hour, but it was. I made eye contact with Stuart. He didn't look very happy, but it could have concentration, or passion. They did a really cool version of 'Psychopomp'. We were about 4th row, and when Jeff Martin walked to the front of the stage, we think we might have made eye contact, but we're not sure because his eyes were hooded over. At the end, Jeff Burrows threw his drum sticks into the crowd, a girl standing about two feet from us caught one. They went off stage; then after about 30 seconds of chanting 'Tea Party', Jeff M came back on, bowed, and played Winter Solistice on his acoustic. They then played Sister Awake.
We mmm were waiting for most of the crowd to disperse, and I looked under the stage, watching all the people backstage walking around. I saw some shoes a la Jeff Martin walking with two other people, I exclaimed loudly: "Look! There's Jeff M!!" A few security guards gave us weird looks as we had our chins on the fence, when they stopped walking and stood there for about five minutes. They started walking again, and we followed along the fence, we didn't see them again, because we got kicked out.
YOOHOO! And last but, not least (probably because it'll end up being the longest) is my review. I, like my above friend will describe the ENTIRE Edgefest lineup. So here goes.
Less than a week later, I recall back on Edgefest, an event that will probably stick with me for all of my life. After all, it's not every day that you see on of your favorite bands, along with other really cool bands, perform live; have a good time with friends, "bond" with thousands of strangers, take a steamy shower with thousands of strangers, be four metres away from Jeff Martin, get smashed up against a fence, be four metres away from Stuart Chatwood, share water from the same bottle with at least twenty other people, and be four metres away from Jeff Burrows.
After arriving at Edgefest, me and the other two co-writers of this page purchased our Tea Party shirts (as wonderful as they are, I really think that they should cut down the prices a little) and rushed downstairs where we woud spend the next eight hours in the same 5 metres square spot (well actually, it's more like we moved 4 metres in half an hour, one metre in the next hour, and the next 6 1/2 hours are spent in the same back aching spot.
But we were determined young women. We wanted to see the bands, to see them close, to see them REAL close. We established our space in the middle of the crowd at the Main Stage and could hear Copyright in the distance on the left. Over Copyright, we could hear the soundcheck (which is the funniest/dullest thing you could hear) of Bif Naked. Not knowing much about Bif Naked, I expected something pop-y and light, not anything hard core. Actually I ended up learning stuff about all the different bands and have convinced myself never to believe what I hear on the radio or on Much, who overplay a lot of music. Anyways, Bif turned out to be a rather good show, something that a lot of people got into and the moshing began. She had good jumpy music with a good beat that was a good mood-setter for the rest of the day. After the crowding of Bif, we received a little cooling room while the Local Rabbits did their set (which I will not comment on because sadly do not recall much for I was too far away and could not hear anything). By the time Holly McNarland got onto stage we had moved closer to the stage. I also enjoyed her set and was amazed at how such a small person could create such a big sound. She proved to overcome her size and play music with an interesting on stage persona that included intensity mixed with a little fun while she jumped around on the already wet stage (it had started to rain lightly) like a small girl. We missed another non Main Stage band: The Killjoys. We were already soaked along with the other thousands of people by the time Econoline Crush came on. Econoline turned out to be a great show, especially since I discovered a non squish zone were I could comfortably stand and get into the show. Econoline really got the crowd going and almost everyone was either moving their bodies, singing along, or crowd surfing. The local newspaper said that there was steam rising from the mosh pit as thousands of wet bodies moshed in the rain/hot weather. It was great, hard music and Trevor Hurst really seemed to be enjoying himself. My friend is convinced that he flashed her a smile :). Sloan was the next band on stage. They had a rather slow start and Chris Murphy (who wore a shirt that said "Get Hooked On Math") seemed to be having plenty of fun posing with karate kicks and drum twirling (???). Despite their slow start the got the crowd in at the end by yelling "SLOOOOAAAAN!" and had a rather respectable finish with 'Money City Maniacs'. Another band that we again missed took the Left Stage: Creed. By then the rain had stopped pouring, but even if it had still poured, we probably would have taken Trevor Hurst's advice: fuck the rain.
Next came the Foo Fighters. That turned out to be an expectantly painful experience. Dave Grohl came out dressed out in this cowboy ensemble (he had the Wranglers, black shirt, boots, hat, the WORKS MAN!). He started to sing "Big Me" but then Billie Joe Armstrong from Green Day came out and flashed his white butt (somebody get that boy to a tanning salon) in front of the whole crowd. So Dave Grohl changed "Big Me" into a wonderful tribute to Billie Joe's butt. Again the crowd enjoyed themselves and I would have too if it wasn't for the fact that I had trouble breathing. Then to everyone's enjoyment came Green Day. They did all their preplanned stunts like pulling a kid (Ryan) from the audience, getting him to finish a song by playing the guitar (he did a good job 2) and did an awesome stage dive into the crowd. Don't worry, there were many Druids security guards that were on guard in case he happened to not make it into the crowd. The Druids security guards also helped all us front row people keep hydrated by spraying us with the hose (even when it was raining?!?). Billie Joe also stripped down to a leopard skin bikini or whatever and jumped around which was umm..well...interesting. And Tre Cool kicked over his drumset at the end of the show and lit it on fire. All in all, it was an interesting stage show, one in which something new would always be happening. Green Day has a great way of blending good music and getting the audience into it.
And after 7 hours of standing in the same place, we arrived upon that final moment that we had been waiting for. It was nine o'clock and the sun was starting to set; the lights on the stage were lit for their first show of the day. A couple hours before, while Creed was playing, my friend has seen Jeff Burrows in the back of the stage watching Creed. We all started to get all excited and wondered where Jeff M and Stuart were. We also saw Bill Welychka in the back and he waved to the crowd. Back to The Tea Party...we couldn't believe we were actually going to see them. It was surreal. As the band came out we screamed. They were wearing their trademark clothing (Jeff M in a black suit, Jeff B in a silver shiny shirt, and Stuart in a tight black shirt) and assumed their positions. The crowd went nuts and as did we. The band started playing, and we soon recognized the first song to be "The River". The band was very intense as they played, and they proceeded to play "The Bazaar", "Fire in the Head", "Psychopomp", "Release", "Save Me",and "Temptation".The band seemed a little uptight at first, but I think they loosened up a bit at the end and Jeff Martin smiled as he walked across the stage. No band is exactly like their CD version, and this band was no exception adding a little bit of their own changes to the song. For example: Psychopomp - violins + acoustic + harder = Edgefest version. As Jeff Martin started talking about the next song being an apology to women I screamed out "Release!" as I instantaneously recognized the opening speech. That was MY little moment of embarassment. Oh well. After "Temptation" the band walked off the stage. It seemed like we were in a time warp or something because it seemed like they had only played for 15-20 minutes while they had actually played for 45-50 minutes. The crowd, agreeing with us about the bands to short stage performance started yelling "Tea Party! Tea Party!" and Jeff Martin walked onto the stage, put his hands together, and bowed to the audience. He then walked over to a drum and started the intro to "Winter Solistice," which sounded really cool played on stage. The rest of the band joined in, and closed off the night with a powerful version of "Sister Awake". All in all, it was an experience like nothing else.
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