The Tea Party, Nathan Cavaleri @ Hindley Street Music Hall, Adelaide 15/2/2026
Five shows. That was the brief window of time Australian fans had to catch The Tea Party’s latest Elements tour. While the East Coast highlights featured the grandeur of an orchestra, Adelaide got to see the trio in their rawest form.
As someone who has followed the band’s evolution since the late 1990s, I thought I’d seen it all but I attended the stunning orchestral set in Melbourne less than two weeks ago to witness something new. However, there’s a specific alchemy that happens when Jeff Martin, Jeff Burrows, and Stuart Chatwood play as a standalone unit. What will they serve up for the purists tonight?
First up was Nathan Cavaleri. Nathan has had a troubled thirty years and it’s genuinely heartening to see him back center-stage. For many of us, the nostalgia runs deep—I still own the CD single of him and Jimmy Barnes performing Gonna See My Baby Tonight, a relic from an era when you could find blues-rock in a box of Uncle Tobys Oats. Cavaleri stepped out, plugged in, and immediately let his guitar do the talking. And what a conversation it was. He opened with Castles in the Sky from his 2020 album Demons, instantly establishing a mood that was both gritty and sophisticated.
The turning point of the set came with the second track. As the first chords of Cold Chisel’s Rising Sun rang out, the usual chatter from the back of the room died away in a wave of collective recognition. This wasn’t a mere cover; played raw and powerful in the truest blues tradition, it was a statement of intent.
Taking the acoustic guitar Nathan performed the beautiful Tilba, his voice as lovely as his guitar playing. The set took a humorous turn toward the end. “This is my last song,” Nathan announced, reaching for his electric guitar. He paused, listened to a prompt from side-stage, and grinned. “Oh, I’ve just been told I have fifteen minutes left. There’s going to be a very long guitar solo in this one, then!” And there was. And it was magnificent masterclass in playing. Thanks, Nathan, for a wonderful support set. If you, like me, haven’t checked in since the 90s, do yourself a favour and dive into his recent catalogue. It’s a comeback well worth your time.
The Tea Party walked on stage to an arousing reception. No introduction, just straight into a grinding Writings on the Wall, a not often played song from the 2004 Seven Circles album. It was obvious this was going to be different from other shows. At the song conclusion, Jeff Martin, ever charismatic, acknowledged Nathan Cavaleri and his guitar playing. “I told him not to show me up, but he did” Jeff laughed. The mysticism of The Bazaar followed and the audience need no prompting to sing the words “Tell my lover, come back to me”.
True to his word, Martin promised a night of rarities. As Stuart Chatwood transitioned to the keyboards, the band launched into Correspondences. The track’s slow-burn build gave Martin space to remind us that he is, and always has been, a guitar titan. Glancing side stage with a grin after a particularly searing passage, he quipped, “Take that, Nathan.”
Requiem was dedicated to “people we have lost” and Jeff then said “after playing with the orchestra’s it is time for The Tea Party to unleash” and they tore into Psychopomp. Dedicated videos to each song filled the screen behind the band adding atmosphere to each of the songs. Through it all, Martin’s voice remains a force of nature. On The Messenger, it possessed the same haunting power and baritone beauty it held thirty years ago.
The band dug deep again with Mantra, a song of pure beauty and magnificence, with Jeff donning a twin neck guitar for the song. This led into the heavy-hitting The Ocean at the End, where Martin gleefully told the crowd, “This song allows me to shred.” He wasn’t lying. Heaven Coming Down evolved seamlessly into INXS’s Never Tear Us Apart and the violin bow was bought out for set closer, Save Me. Jeff momentary forgot the words during the epic song, looking at Stuart and saying “You know what. I forgot the words; do I need to get a teleprompter?” He needn’t have worried—the Adelaide audience took over, singing every word back to him.
The band tore through Temptation, the start of the encore and the tour-de-force of Sister Awake followed. It started with just Jeff Martin playing Winter Solace on acoustic guitar, solo, Jeff Burrows stalking the stage commanding the audience to clap in time while Stuart just took time out, having a beer at the side of the stage. Then as Burrows moved to the drums, Jeff Martin grabbed a bongo drum and played along with Burrows. The climax came when Martin strapped on his electric guitar and asked a simple question: “What does absolute power sound like?” He answered it with a single, earth-shaking chord. The band exploded into Sister Awake, intertwined with a version of The Rolling Stones Paint It Black—played louder and harder than the Stones ever dreamed—then with Bowie’s Heroes, before circling back to the commanding conclusion of Sister Awake.
The Tea Party remains one of the most majestic live acts in the world. They are a band that refuses to stagnate, playing with as much fire and precision as they did in the 90s. With the promise of new music on the horizon, let’s hope we see them here again soon.
Live Review By Geoff Jenke