Jeff Martin and the Armada @ The Metro Theatre on Sunday 9 November, 2008

Album: The Armada (self titled)

It was no surprise that devoted fanatics of The Tea Party flocked to Sydney’s Metro Theatre on a Sunday evening to hear the long awaited new epic sounds of Jeff Martin and his new band The Armada.

With a long wait between albums and recent performances the crowd at the Metro seemed less than amused with the one man band support act Henry Wagons who played a barrage of songs he deemed as “death, destruction and the avoidance of the likes of that you’ve never seen”. All played on acoustic guitar, it was an odd arrangement of songs with dramatic banter in between which was perhaps Wagon’s way of trying to connect with the crowd through comedy when clearly they were all just wanting to see and hear Jeff.

As the growing murmurs of conversation started during and after the support act the lights dimmed with a purple tinge giving way to the sound of traditional Turkish music and a belly dancer sensually shaking around on the stage. After ten mesmerising minutes Jeff and the Armada finally appear on stage, launching straight into the highly impressive track Morocco from their debut self-titled album. Returning to the dirty, heavy sounds of rock ‘n’ roll, Jeff and the Armada had the crowd in an absolute frenzy. There were also a few Tea Party tracks thrown into the mix including the sheer brilliance of Heaven Coming Down.

Jeff played a number of different guitars including a custom made, double-necked, 18 strings for the acoustic selection. Amongst them, the power ballad Broken and the heartfelt and more personal tune The Rosary written for Jeff’s late grandmother who, as he points out played an important part in raising him.

The highly anticipated wait for the return of the heavy rock ‘n’ roll music of Jeff Martin and crew totally and utterly delivered to avid followers of the sound. In the words of Jeff Martin “Rock ‘n’ Roll is BACK!!” Can’t wait to hear the next installment.