August 4, 2024

Princess Chelsea’s MidWinter Ball – The Civic’s Wintergarden: August 3, 2024

When Princess Chelsea throws a ball she’s not messing around. Last night Chelsea, her band and fans assembled to pay tribute to winter and to David Lynch’s Twin Peaks.

If Log Lady, Laura Palmer, Agent Cooper or cherry pie mean anything to you, then the Wintergarden was the place to be.

The sold-out event encourage patrons to dress up as their favourite Twin Peaks characters and I, for one, was thrilled to see a few eye-patched “Nadines”, waitresses inspired by Peggy Lipton’s Norma, “Laura Palmers” wrapped in plastic, a Log Lady or two and even someone dressed as a slice of cherry pie. Yes, everyone was in the spirit.

The Wintergarden was set up with a photo op replicating the infamous Red Room and there was a foggy forest to walk through…beware of the owls or Bob.

Half Hexagon

The festivities got underway with some good-natured karaoke until opening act Half Hexagon took the stage at about 8:50. The trio is a “supergroup” of sorts, consisting of James Milne (aka Lawrence Arabia) on keys, Julien Dyne on drums and Yolanda Fagan (Na Noise/Echo Ohs) on vocals. Their influences range from Neu! And Can to Don Cherry and Silver Apples and the resulting sound was perfect for this evening.

They played for about 40 minutes impressing everyone who took a moment to really listen. Granted, there was a party vibe in the air, and folks could be forgiven for chattering during the performance. The longer Half Hexagon played the more attentive the crowd became.

Live, their 3-4 minute tracks are extended to about twice the length, giving the players room to groove. The set ended with a propulsive version of their latest single, The Method, that built up to and impressive crescendo. Everyone I spoke to after was impressed, as was I.

Princess Chelsea

A break enabled us to refill our glasses and recall our favourite Twin Peaks moments. Finally, just before 10pm Princes Chelsea and her band, The Dream Warriors appeared on stage with a huge harp set up in the read left corner of the stage indicating that this was no ordinary gig.

Indeed, the harp, played by Harry Harrison, got the set underway with Time, from Chelsea’s Everything Is Going To Be Alright album. Along with the band…Simeon Kavanagh-Vincent and Joshua Worthington-Church (guitars), David Harris (drums), Joe Kaptein (keys) and Jasmine Balmer (bass), while a figure looking very much like Audrey Horne, the character played by Sherlyn Fenn, stalked the stage.

I should point out that Jasmine was in waitress gear as a homage to Norma.

The hyped up crowd finally settled down when those familiar chords that make up Falling, Angelo Badalamenti’s Twin Peaks theme, rang out with Chelsea doing her best Julee Cruse. It was slow, seductive and narcotic, just like the show.

We got a good mix of Princess Chelsea classics before we were treated to “Audrey’s Dance” with Chelsea on clarinet, followed by Julee Cruise’s Floating featuring sax player Lukas Fritsch.

The set finished with a gloriously noisy In Heaven.

For the encore, Chelsea returned on her own for a lovely solo readying of The Chills’ Heavenly Pop Hit in honour of the late, great Martin Phillipps and everyone returned to play out the night with Everything Is Going To Be Alright Pt. 2.

There was no reason to think otherwise as Chelsea told us “We should do more stuff like this!

So will there be another Twin Peaks night next years? Of maybe a tribute to another vintage TV series…Gilligan’s Island, Bewitched, I Dream Of Jeannie, My Mother The Car…I could go on.

What a great night as we got more drinks and more karaoke to send us off into the midwinter night.

Marty Duda

Click on any image to view a photo gallery By Azrie

Princess Chelsea: