As part of her North American Debut Tour, Auckland alternative/indie musician Princess Chelsea is set to perform 26 shows. Along with her band members David Harris, Jasmine Balmer, Joe Kaptein, Joshua Worthingon-Church, Kate Tindall, and Simeon Kavanagh-Vincent, the Princess Chelsea band toured with other artists such as Kinneret and Kitty. This marks the first time the band travels to North America for a tour.
My girlfriend, Rubi and I had been planning on going to a concert for a while now so when we heard Princess Chelsea was going to be performing in Santa Cruz on November 15th, we immediately bought some tickets without even figuring out our ride situation. The tickets were around 20 dollars which was surprising considering other artists sell their tickets starting at $50. We were both fans of Princess Chelsea and the tickets were in our price range so we decided “Why not?”
The location was at The Catalyst Atrium, a nightclub in Santa Cruz. The show was set to start at 8 pm with the doors opening at 7:30 pm. We were running a little late and didn’t get there until 8:15. When entering, there was not much of a line, so we figured the show had already started. To our surprise there seemed to be people there that looked as if they had been there for a while just standing swaying back and forth or even just leaning against the wall on their phones. Staff were seen scrambling around fixing cables and setting up equipment.
The venue itself was pretty small. The Catalyst’s capacity is 800, but there were only around 50 people there. It had a section for merch on one end and a bar on the other. The stage was in the middle of the room and was occupied by the band’s instruments. Despite the show already set to have started, there were not many people inside and there was no performance going on. We took this time to look around at the merch tables. The opener, Kinneret, had some keychains, t-shirts, and CDs available. We helped ourselves to a keychain and CD as they were inexpensive being $5 for the keychain and $10 for the CD. Princess Chelsea’s merch was more on the pricey side, having a vinyl for $30 and cd for $15.
At 8:30, Jewish psychedelic singer Kinneret, most known for her hit song “No Wind Resistance”, got on stage to introduce herself. Kinneret performed for about an hour. She was a little more shy in performing, but nonetheless gave it her all and her vocals were impressive. Although we had not heard much from her, we liked some of the songs she performed and even decided to buy her CD after the show. An hour later, Kinneret said her goodbyes, and shortly after the Princess Chelsea band got on stage.
Without even greeting the crowd, Princess Chelsea and her band-mates walked onto the stage and started performing an intensified version of the song “Everything is Going to be Alright,” setting a heavy atmosphere. In contrast to her studio version which displays more soft-toned vocals and instrumentals, the live version was leading more towards the genre of grunge. I stood there taken aback watching with my eyes peeled back impressed with their stage performance and ability to draw in the audience. Once the song was over everyone clapped and her personality switched. She greeted the crowd and thanked us for coming and supporting her. All her songs were more intense and clearer in person compared to streaming them on your phone, being a mixture of all her popular and meaningful songs from all her albums.
She played songs from all of her albums. Including her most popular songs, “I love my boyfriend,” and “Cigarette Duet.” When performing “Cigarette Duet,” Princess Chelsea brought out a special guest, Jonathan Bree. Their vocals and voices complimented each other, sounding as if I was listening straight off of my phone. The band also played many songs from their most recent album, Everything Is Going To Be Alright, like The Forest and In Heaven. In total the band played around 15 songs and performed for around an hour and a half.
Around 10:30 the band ran out of the venue, leaving fans confused. As the fans had started to head out, thinking the concert was over, the Princess Chelsea band returned to play for another half hour. We found this unprofessional as they didn’t mention their absence at all.
When the show ended (again), they walked out again and we stood there wondering why they didn’t give a proper goodbye. Considering the size of the crowd, we expected more from them and even for them to talk to their fans after the concert. We agreed that Kinneret’s farewell to the audience was more respectful and kind as she let us know that her performance was done and she would be where the merchandise was if we wanted to stop by to support her or to just chat with her.
Estrella: My favorite song throughout the show had to be “Wasting Time.” The band’s stage presence was fun and I liked that they acted out the lyrics as Princess Chelsea sang. The crowd was also very energetic, some fans jumped around the venue singing and laughing along with others shouting, “I love you!”
Rubi: We were surprised by the low number of people there considering she’s pretty popular among the alternative/indie genre and some of her other shows were sold out. I preferred the smaller crowd because it felt more intimate than seeing an artist perform on a screen from the back of the venue. Princess Chelsea also interacted with some of the crowd, shouting “You’ve got it b*tch!” when a fan had requested she play “Too many people.”
Estrella: I have only ever been to one other concert, which was P1Harmony’s 2022 PEACE tour when they performed on May 18 (after being postponed because staff contracted Covid) in the San Jose Civic. I preferred the Catalyst’s venue because I felt closer to the artist. Although the genres are different, Princess Chelsea managed to make her music seem more authentic because of the live band, whereas P1Harmony relied on a backtrack. The Princess Chelsea band sounded better than their recorded versions because they played a more intense version, making the sound seem like something new. I rate this show a 8.9/10 because I enjoyed my time there and had fun with my girlfriend, but if I had been on time I would’ve been disappointed that the concert started half an hour late. I also thought their exit was a bit disappointing and had expected a proper goodbye.
Rubi: It should be noted that this was the first concert that I had been to, so I didn’t know what I should expect going into it. With the first impression Princess Chelsea made on me, it’s good to say I more than enjoyed it. I was a bit frightened by her first song because of how intense it was. They went on stage without even greeting the crowd and were making eye contact with each other. At one point, she was shaking from humming for so long and grinding her teeth. I thought in my head, “this gives cult vibes.“ Every moment I was captivated by her and her band-mates’ music and ability to really put on a show and draw the crowd in and to forget about what else was going on. My favorite song she performed was, “In Heaven” because the atmosphere was calm and her voice was melodic. If she were to go on tour and play a show near me again I would definitely love to go again to experience her music and performance live, once again and would rate the concert a 9.7/10 mainly because she didn’t stay to take photos with the fans which I was looking forward to.
