A cold, rainy night welcomed Princess One Point Five to Perth for their first ever performance on the west coast. The Melbourne duo- petite 1.5m tall singer Sarah Jane Wentzki and band-veteran drummer Richard Andrew, stepped off the plane and came straight to the show to play to a crowd of only 15 people at the Hyde Park Hotel on Friday night and launch their new album Vous Je Vous (you I you).
Whether it was because the Hyde Park Hotel usually hosts louder bands, or just that Perth is a long way from Melbourne, the reason for the poor turnout was uncertain, but the small audience didn’t bother Wentzki, a musician not afraid of intimacy.
“I love the small appreciative crowds…it takes so much money and time to get here, just playing to a couple of people makes it worth it,” she said after the set.
While scheduled for 9pm, Princess One Point Five started at 11pm, 1am in Melbourne time. Local blues/alternative husband and wife duo the Belle Ends played in matching black outfits and tattoos at 9pm. They were followed by instrumental garage/grime three-piece Hooper’s Store, who, in the tiny back room of the Hydey- which seems a lot smaller when empty, could be heard just as well outside. The audience dwindled down to single digit numbers at times as most of the hotel’s denim clad and bearded patrons were more entertained by the pool tables out the back.
So when the self-described ‘princess and beast’ finally made it to the stage they were a welcome sight. The dramatic but unimposing red lighting in the back room was like a metaphor for the sounds it accompanied. Vous Je Vous is musically stronger than the melancholy and ambient last album The Truth, and balances soft and light songs with slow, moodier ones. Stand out tracks include the uplifting I’m onto something good and the more garage Aren’t you clever? The final song, Oh So Cold was dedicated to Wentzki’s mother.
With only Wentzki and Andrew on tour, their Perth show had to make use of just guitar, keyboard and drums while the cello, violin and viola stayed at home with the occasional band mates.
Although sad that so many people in Perth missed out on Princess One Point Five, a band with so much quiet talent, there was an unmistakable feeling among the tiny audience that they were part of an elite group of people who had discovered a wonderful little secret.
