This last concert was Thursday night. It started with me picking Erin from the ferry. What a joke the walk on area in Victoria is. They have a row of parking stalls for drop off only. Most of those spots were people waiting to pick someone up. The rest of the parking lot is pay use only. So, if you are going to be at the terminal for anything under 30 seconds, you are expected to buy a parking pass. How ridiculous. Also, they are charging $1 for a half hour of parking. That is more than the city parkades in downtown Victoria! That is more than most of the meters in downtown as well. Stupid. Most people just waited by their cars instead of meeting someone inside. But I digress.
After snagging Erin, we headed into town to grab some dinner at the Old Bailey. Sue joined us, and all of us were extremely hungry. After ordering our waitress tells us that the kitchen is a little backed up right now. Aaaaargh! We just wanted something to eat, and quickly. After what seemed like an eternity, the appy arrived. In all the food was excellent, and the beer delicious, but we were sooo hungry, it would been perfect if the food arrived sooner.
After dinner Erin and I wandered down to Legends to see when Tea Party would be on. The Bouncers told us Tea Party around 11, and the openers on around 10. The opening band was the Years I think. Noone we were interested in seeing. Instead we went back to my place, and got caught up. We got back to the club right as the opening band finished. We grabbed a drink, and just as we finished that, the lights dimmed, and the crowd got riled up.
The concert started off with a hit. The River is an awesome song, and really good for opening with. They mixed in it a couple cover tunes as well. The next song was a new one called Overload. Almost all the way through this one something went wrong, and Jeff Martin’s guitar went silent. They had to eventually leave the stage so it could get fixed. Upon returning to the stage, they jumped right back in where they left off, and played an awesome concert.
Their current release, Writing’s on the Wall, was very wicked. It was a little heavier than the record version, and was perfect for near the end of the concert.
The gripe I have with that concert is the fact that I had heard most of it before. I managed to get some MP3’s from the last Tea Party concert I went to, and the two shows had a lot in common. I still enjoyed myself, but I couldn’t help but wonder why when starting a new tour in support of a new album, they couldn’t come up with some new material. Also, they only played 2 songs off the new album, and I really would have liked to hear more. When I am a rich and famous singer/songwriter, I will do everything perfectly so everybody is happy. (that was sarcasm folks).
The last note for that night was a funny occurance on my way out the door. As I climbed the stairs out of Legends I took out my earplugs. As I was walking out the main door, I was putting them back into a small plastic bag. One of the bouncers called out to me, and came after me to ask me “what do you have there?”. Laughingly I showed him the bag and said “earplugs”. He returned to my post, and I chuckled to myself. I guess he thought it was a baggie of drugs, but even if it was, I was already on the sidewalk outside the club, where he could not do a thing. Too funny. That reminds me. The bouncers were pretty cool about people smoking up during the show. They merely requested the participants to stop, and not eject them like I have seen so many other times. Fun.
I finally got into bed sometime around 1:15 am, so when my alarm went off at 5:45, I was hurting pretty bad. Erin had to be on the 7am ferry, so I rolled out of bed, woke Erin up, then headed out. Work was a little painful Friday, but it was worth it!