Charismatic rock legend Jeff Martin, who we all know was the founding member and main contributor of mystic, dark rockers The Tea Party, walks on stage tonight as an individual, in a rare solo performance at Brisbane’s coolest venue, The Troubadour. The stage is set with a small table holding half a dozen candles and a glass full of burning incense, creating a warm, intimate and almost “spiritual” atmosphere.

The set opens with The Bazaar, a classic from The Tea Party repertoire, and it’s instantly clear that Jeff hasn’t lost any of his skill or listener appeal since leaving the other two members of the band behind. The following track is an empathetic call out to the fire and flood victims of Victoria and North Queensland, Requiem with a verse of two of Trent Reznor’s Hurt. Very touching. Jeff then pulls out another classic Tea Party tune, The Messenger. The sound quality of his voice and guitar tonight are impeccable, a rich and warm tone and fullness. An interesting observation, tonight Jeff Martin is using all Australian made Maton guitars!

As you may know if you’ve followed Martin’s career post Tea Party, he has formed a new band called The Armada. The album hasn’t officially been released yet. Jeff fills us in on the plans to release it world wide in May 2009, and the band will be touring Australia at that time too! FYI they’ll be at the new Hi Fi Bar in West End May 10th. He previews a few songs from the forth coming album, which he explains is a “dark sexy rock album”, but tonight they all stripped back acoustic versions. The new material has an ethereal, positive and mystic feel to it, not too dissimilar to his previous work, but maybe possessing a stronger insight into humanity and the ideas of forgiveness, understanding and compassion. Not so centered round the negative aspects of life as a Rock Legend.

The second half of the set becomes a bit of a mash-up medley type of thing. There’s an Edges of Twilight medley, throwing back to 1995 era Tea Party. Then Jeff takes us on a journey to his second home, Ireland, with a mash-up of Led Zeppelin, Arcade Fire and a Martin original. Then he takes us back to his “other life” with The Doors classic Five to One. This is followed by a touching dedication to the families affected by the fires in Victoria, with The Kingdom. To finish off the set, Sister Awake, into Massive Attack’s Inertia Creeps, into Save Me, into Love Will Tear Us Apart. It’s a Jeff Martin Medley Feast!