Chelsea Jade creates the atmosphere of dislocation and Indie Pop reverie just by materialising and disappearing at will.
The big Whammy venue has a central podium tonight. DJ Samara Alofa has been entertaining us with beats from this novel setup as the room slowly fills and people mill around this central core. The main stage is bare.
Lights drop and House rhythms pulse out. Deep metronomic bass drops.
Like a hive of insects’ people swarm in patterns which gives clues to… where is Chelsea?
A wraith-like figure appears. Since she has a remote mic headset…she’s the one that’s got it!
Just give me what my body wants. The Colour Sum. Breathy vocals and echoing beats. Minimalist with lots of space for the music to breathe and pulsate.
Slow Mama heartbeat music and Laurie Anderson mixed with Tom Waits creates a thaumaturgic atmosphere.
She’s a wraith as she moves in hypnotic fashion, arms floating around her, intense wild-eyed stare.
All music is from the sound desk.
Moves around the crowd and is hard to spot. Look where the source of the ripples is. Eventually enters the central podium. But she’s not confined there and disappears off to materialise on the bare main stage. Strong strip lights behind her.
Chelsea Jade Metcalf was born in Capetown, South Africa and emigrated to New Zealand aged five.
High School friend of Elizabeth Stokes (The Beths) with whom she formed a small Folk trio, Teacups, to busk and get noticed.
They got to support a few big shows, like Cat Power.
Her first solo project in 2012 was under the handle Watercolours, which gained her recognition with a New Zealand Music award. Second EP Beacons followed two years later under her own name.
Relocated to Los Angeles in 2015 where she set up as a songwriter. Broader than that as her artistic approach is immersive and wide-ranging. Dance and interpretive movement, video production, album cover artwork.
Must be the season of the witch. Travelling back and forth between NZ and LA, found herself trapped in America when the lockdown madness descended in 2020.
Took some time for artists to find their feet, like being caught in a wild West Coast beach rip. Los Angeles had its own malevolent vibe with the black ash of forest fires colouring the sky.
A few tunes drop into Jazz café mode. Trumpet and saxophones, a louche lounge ambience and sultry vocals.
Jade’s music is predominantly textures, and experiencing it live for the first time it has the eerie nature of the Suicide pair, Rev and Vega.
The music of Doo-Wop and Girl Group stripped back to skeletal. Sensual and melodic, casting spells to draw you in. Dreamscape music.
Low Brow and Life of the Party are gloriously minimalist. Deep bass drops differentiate it from orchestral Philip Glass.
Eschews conventional tension and release for drone tones, still within the form of a three-minute single.
Superfan has an unsettling creepy nature. The audience help her with the distinctive squeaks.
Jade is not as harsh or confrontational in her movement on stage as Alan Vega, who deliberately antagonised his audience.
For a start she uses the whole space and is only on the main stage in brief bursts. How one artist can hold a spell over the room without any other performers being present.
Announces one new song for the night, which is the most conventional sounding, overlaid with strings.
Chelsea Jade disappears just as abruptly, and it is as if we have been in a David Lynch fever dream movie.
Rev. Orange Peel
All photos by Greg Haver. Click any icon to see a gallery of photos from the show
