PREVIEW
What: An Evening with The Tea Party
When: Wednesday, 7:30 p.m.
Where: McPherson Playhouse
Tickets: $42.50 at rmts.bc.ca, by phone at 250-386-6121, or in person at the Royal McPherson box office
The Tea Party went on a run in the mid-1990s that put it in rarefied rock company.
The trio from Windsor, Ont., netted seven Juno Award nominations between 1994 and 1998, to go with album sales of more than a million copies in about the same time frame.
The Tea Party headlined the touring Edgefest festival in 1998, placing higher on the bill than U.S. heavyweights Green Day and Foo Fighters, and the group developed an international fan base that few Canadian acts at the time could match.
In 2005, the band called it quits amid a bit of mud-slinging, bringing to an eventful close a wildly successful 15-year run.
“I was very unhappy with the direction the band was headed into with [the 2004 album] Seven Circles,” singer Jeff Martin said Monday from a tour stop in Grand Prairie, Alta.
“There was too many cooks in the kitchen for my tastes. Because of that, I started to self-medicate. [The split] was necessary. We were at the point where it had to happen. We needed a break.”
Martin and his fellow Tea Party founders, bassist Stuart Chatwood and drummer Jeff Burrows, put their fractured past behind them in 2011, reuniting for a series of live dates that got the group back on the same page. A few months of shows became a few years of regular activity, and in 2014, the trio made its return official with The Ocean at the End, its first album of new material in close to a decade.
The Tea Party is currently on tour in Canada to mark the 20th anniversary of its 1997 recording Transmission. It was a big hit upon its release, thanks to singles such as Temptation and Babylon. The band’s fourth album is notable for its harrowing lyrical themes, some of which give it an eerie connection to the political climate of today, Martin said.
“A lot of bands will tour for nostalgia’s sake. But Transmission is not a record of the ’90s. It’s a record that is still relevant today, especially with what’s going on down south.”
During its 35-date 20 Years of Transmission Tour, the band has been playing the album in its entirety, followed by a second set of hits from other points in its career. The reception has been strong, with shows across the country drawing big crowds since February. Dates in Nanaimo on Tuesday and Victoria on Wednesday are nearly sold out, which has been the case with many shows on the tour, Martin said.
“It’s overwhelming, the response the band has gotten on this tour. It’s humbling.”
With the seven-year split well in the past, the Tea Party is focused on the future. The band has been working on new material at Martin’s studio in Australia, where he has lived since 2008. The tour — which wraps April 8 in Los Angeles — has given members of the Tea Party time to reflect on the past and the opportunity to envision a new future. And what does that entail?
Plenty of riffs, Martin said with a laugh.
“If you can imagine The Tea Party doing Led Zeppelin II on steroids, that’s what you’re about to get.”
Martin, who met Chatwood when he was 13, has known Burrows since he was five years old; the two friends had their first band when Martin was 10 and Burrows was 11. The foundation of the Tea Party is built on that shared history, and while speed bumps have arisen, the refurbished rock group is now built for the long haul, Martin said.
“When we have a serious disagreement, or a conflict of interest, it goes deep. And it takes some time to heal. But what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger. When we got back together, musically it was more powerful than ever. It took some time for the friendship to come back into the fold. Now, we’re tighter than ever as brothers. I can’t see it ending.”
