Sarah McLeod & Jeff Martin @ The Heritage Hotel, 7th Feb ’14
A full house was assembled at the iconic Heritage Hotel in Bulli to witness the somewhat unlikely collaboration between two revered songwriters in The Tea Party‘s Jeff Martin and The Superjesus‘ Sarah McLeod.
The night commenced with McLeod ploughing through a rollicking acoustic set, incorporating Superjesus favourites such as Second Sun with the unexpected; namely her take on a barbershop ditty called The Greatest Pretender, showing both versality as a performer as well as her sense of humour.
McLeod is a passionately wholehearted performer and completed her solo set with an emphatic rendition of He Doesn’t Love You, before exiting the stage to tumultuous applause from the assembled masses.
A brief intermission transpired before Martin and McLeod returned for their duo set, with Martin curiously referring to his musical partner in crime as “a little package” before showcasing their new epic Man The Lifeboats, featuring the attention demanding lyric “I am the captain of the ship“, before finishing oddly enough with a version of INXS track Never Tear Us Apart.
A debut album from the duo was promised within a year.
Another brief break and then it was time for The Tea Party frontman to grace the stage in solo mode.
After a rather self confident analysis of the forthcoming Tea Party record he went back in time to the mid nineties with the grandiose rendition of The Bazaar from The Edges Of Twilight before poignantly dedicating the opus that is Requiem to his gravely ill mother back in his native Canada.
After that somewhat lugubrious moment he took things up a notch with Black Snake Blues before exiting the stage.
The masses then filtered out into the South Coast night, buoyant after witnessing a fine night of stripped back acoustic rock.
He can also be found clinging to his youth on a skateboard or wandering aimlessly through the bush.
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- Parkway Drive @ Wollongong Uni, 25th June ’16 - July 1, 2016
- Basement @ The Factory, 27th May ’16 - June 3, 2016
