Photos and a review of Finger Eleven and The Tea Party in Ottawa
[Another report from Ross MacDonald. – AC]
Braving snow squalls on the first Saturday in December, the Arena at TD Place was filling up to near capacity with fans of The Tea Party, Headstones, and Finger Eleven. At about 7pm, as Finger Eleven was supposed to start their set, Jeff Martin from The Tea Party came on stage and addressed the fans flanked by Scott Anderson of Finger Eleven and some of the members of Headstones. Unfortunately, illness struck again and Hugh Dillon, lead singer of Headstones, had fallen ill and could not perform.
Jeff Martin came out on stage and explained that unfortunately the Headstones couldn’t perform because Hugh Dillon is ill and lost his voice (there is a lot of that going on). So the triple bill changed to a double bill and Finger Eleven and The Tea Party will play longer sets.
Jeff addressed the audience: “They are gutted that they can’t perform this evening. We will endeavour to fill the very big void. It promises to be still a great night of rock and roll.” Headstones bassist Tim White added: “Trent and I want to thank Finger Eleven and The Tea Party for filling in for us, they are going to do a bit more than they would ordinarily do just to help us out in the spirit of Canadian brotherhood and musicianship.”
A few minutes later the house lights dimmed and the enormous screen at the back of the stage lit up with the Finger Eleven logo. Then to thunderous cheers the band came out onto the stage and got right down to business.
The band started off with the hard-hitting single ‘Above’ from the 1997 album Tip. While bassist Sean Anderson remained visually calm, the same can’t be said for the rest of the band. Singer Scott Andreson was up front commanding the performance with intense vocals, but nobody was taking a back seat.
Lead guitarist James Black was shredding all night right from the first song. And stage left (mostly) was rhythm guitarist Rick Jackett who is renowned for massive hair flips and spinning his guitar while not missing a strum. It is these two guitarists who are so in sync, that provide Finger Eleven with such depth to their live concerts.
A little later the band performed ‘Quicksand’, which was the first single released from the aforementioned album Tip. Again, the audience loved hearing songs from the second album. [note: I have to be honest and admit that I was a little disappointed not hearing ‘Circles’ from their 1995 debut album.]
Finger Eleven performed several songs off their newest studio album Last Night On Earth, that was released on 7 November. Of note is the album’s second single, that is currently a top-10 hit, ‘Blue Sky Mystery’. Scott introduced the song “You won’t believe it but we finally got off our asses and made a brand new record. They said ‘It would never happen! Those lazy fucks?’ We said ‘uh-huh’, we’ll make a new record every ten years, whether there is a demand or not!” The song was again delivered with the band’s signature intensity, and was extremely well received, especially as everyone was familiar with its recent airplay.
Scott then got things quiet again and spoke to the fans: “We’re going to play the title track from our new album, and it is quite emotional, it is kinda special track on the record. And what I thought would be really cool if you could create a magical moment together. Does everyone have a phone with a flashlight? Here we go! It’s a song called ‘Last Night On Earth’”
So yes, mostly everyone shone their phone flashlights (light the cigarette lighters of yesteryear), and swayed to music. As promised, it was a very emotional song, and a magical moment in the evening. After the song Scott added: “that was fucking great, I’m sorry that you drained all your batteries!“
Right after that most of the band took a short break while guitar virtuoso James then put on a solo show, including some vocals with a huge reverb; captivating everyone with jaws hanging on the floor. The end of his solo merged into the guitar riff for the band’s hugely popular, number one hit single ‘One Thing’. This is one way to get the Ottawa crowd to its feet and sing along.
After a few more cuts from the new album, the band performed a cover of Pink Floyd’s ‘Welcome To The Machine’, where James once again gave a lesson on guitar solos with incredible bends and effects.
As time for Finger Eleven was ticking down to the end of their set, they started with an acoustic intro of Genesis ‘That’s All’. It seemed a little strange and light for the ending of a Finger Eleven concert. And by the way, where was ‘Paralyzer’? After a couple of minutes of ‘That’s All’, a short silent pause, then there it was, in full force.
Again, the crowd jumped to their feet and sang along “Well, I’m not paralyzed, but I seem to be struck by you!” There was a mashup with AC-DC’s riff from ‘Back In Black’, but then it was back to ‘Paralyzer’, closing out their show with “You’ll probably move right through me on my way to you!”
After the roadies got the stage stripped of Finger Eleven’s instruments and mics, then set up with The Tea Party’s instruments, it was time for the rock celebration to continue.
The Tea Party also started their set hard and fast with ‘Writing’s On The Wall’, with many Ottawa fans screaming along to the chorus. Right from the beginning, an ongoing question in everyone’s mind is: “how can only three individuals create that wall of sound?”
But The Tea Party answered that question with a master class in multi-tasking. Jeff Martin was picking and strumming while his beautiful baritone voice filled the arena. Stuart is picking his bass fast and furious, or playing the keyboards while his feet play the bass pedals, and Jeff Burrows never stopped hammering the drums and other percussion, while singing backing vocals.
Jeff Martin told everyone that the band were the travel agents taking the fans on a trip through the middle east and north Africa to the grand ‘Bazaar’. And with mid-eastern themed dancers projected behind the band as they played the entire feel was like being in a souk.
The Tea Party is not afraid to make their songs fresh while not losing their original draw. They mashed The Tragically Hip’s ‘Bobcaygeon’ into the middle of their hit ‘The Messenger’ to great cheers from their fans. Likewise they did a similar mashup with U2’s ‘With Or Without You’ into their biggest hit ‘Heaven Coming Down’. Again, the crowd loved it!
Not only can Jeff Martin pick and strum his guitar, at one point he pulled out a violin bow and proceeded to play long haunting notes that reinforce the band’s otherworldly tones.
To close out the night the band started into ‘Sister Awake’. As they had done with some previous hit songs, they threw in a couple of complementary mashups. First was ‘Paint It Black’ by the Rolling Stones; but following that was something even more powerful, the ‘Heroes’ by David Bowie, one of the greatest innovators.
Yes, Kingston’s Headstones were dearly missed. But Finger Eleven and The Tea Party did their best to fill the void; and as promised, it was “a great night of rock and roll!”
The Tea Party:
Jeff Martin – vocals, guitar
Stuart Chatwood – bass, keyboards, bass pedals, backing vocals
Jeff Burrows – drums, percussion, backing vocals
Finger Eleven:
Scott Anderson – lead vocals
James Black – lead guitar, backing vocals
Rick Jackett – rhythm guitar
Sean Anderson – bass
Steve Molella – drums
