Where Do We Go From Here

Jeff Martin played at the Commodore last night.

A local band band called Sonic City opened. The guitarist, Danny Sveinson, is only 12yrs old. He's also some kind of child prodigy, having already done numerous performances including jamming with guitar legend Les Paul. Danny's ability to whip out fast solos and run scales are impressive. It was entertaining to watch him bust out the behind-the-neck guitar solo. It reminded me of Michael J Fox in Back To The Future. I can only see big things happening for this kid.

Jeff Martin came on stage to a nice applause from the audience. The crowd was older on this night and filled with many longtime Tea Party fans. Jeff's new four piece backing band includes good friend Ritesh Das and former Page & Plant drummer Michael Lee. During the heavy songs with the pounding drums and guitars, it was hard to hear Ritesh on his percussions.

Jeff played many songs off the new solo album and also covered some Tea Party songs. These included Walking Wounded, an awesome version of The Messenger, and the first verse of Save Me before going into a sweet performance of Winter Solstice. Throughout the night, he used around 8 different guitars, including a 12 string acoustic and a heavy double decker 12 and 6 string electric. He comes about halfway to Johnny Rzeznik's guitar count, which includes 15+ guitars for his shows.....all of them with crazy tunings.

Jeff mentioned some origins of a few of the new songs being played. Angel Dust was written for his new child. Butterfly deals with his wife and her pregnancy. The Kingdom was written for former bandmates Stuart Chatwood and Jeff Burrows, and also for Jeff Martin himself and the fans. The former Tea Party frontman seemed very content, and mentioned a few times how this is a new beginning for him and that he's definitely enjoying life more. He also now resides in Ireland with his family and stated that the new album was influenced by his new surroundings, including a more worldly sound.

For the encore, Michael Lee came out first and did a nice 5min drum solo. Ritesh then joined back in on percussions for a duet. Afterwards, Jeff and rest of the band came back on to close out the 1hr 45min set with Turn The Lamp Down Low, tagged with Voodoo Child and Whole Lotta Love.