Tuesday, 14 July 2026

Tunesady : Mantra

 


Mantra
(Burrows, J., Martin, J., Chatwood, S.) Performed by The Tea Party

a thousand dreams within
within me softly burn
they burn the savage soul
that twisted what it learned
i feel this life slipping by
i can feel this life slipping by
desire is a state
a state of ill repair
it's ill prepared to cope
it's ill prepared to care
i feel this life slipping by
i can feel this life slipping by
time and time life's left me only
feeling sick and feeling scared
now love is strong
my love is strong
i'll go on and on and on and on and on
mercy is the cry of the soul that stirred
beneath the creeping vine
a flower tries to change
it tries to satisfy
it's thirst without the rains
i feel this change coming on
i can feel this change coming on
time and time life's left me only
feeling sick and feeling scared
now love is strong my love is strong
i'll go on and on and on and on and on
mercy is the cry of the soul that stirred
mercy is the cry and it's never heard
love is all we have
love is all we need



I had noticed there were a couple of concerts coming up that I thought my nephew, Conor, might enjoy seeing, so I sent him a couple of options and he chose The Tea Party. And the more I thought about how lame it would be for him to go with his aging auntie (me) in tow, the more I thought that it could be a bigger group of us; invite the whole family and make it a birthday party for him. In the end, only his mother was free, and since she was retiring this week, we made it a party of four, to celebrate them both.

We started the evening at our favourite Greek restaurant beside the theatre — free parking for the evening for dinner guests is one of my favourite life hacks — and I thought that it was pretty cool that the famously picky eater, Conor, ordered a gyro and Greek salad dinner and enjoyed the whole thing. (He has apparently never had Greek food before — not even in Greece — so that felt like a win for me.)

We walked over to Centre in the Square for the concert, and again, I was surprised to learn that Conor had never been there before (Laura had only been once), so from the start, the evening was kind of magical.

And although I don't know if I've ever even heard The Tea Party on the radio, the band totally blew us away. Such confidence and bravura performance. Maybe not the kind of music Dave and I would choose to listen to, but they put on an amazing show that totally worked as a celebration for these family members who have experienced such loss this year.


love is all we have
love is all we need