The last time I saw Mojo Juju, she was twirling a gold fob-watch as we navigated the bowels of the Adelaide Festival Theatre searching for the 2014 Cabaret Festival Closing Night Party.
While the Sydney troubadour has taken to that festival's stage on three occasions, her latest visit to our city was under her own steam as she promoted her acclaimed sophomore solo album, 'Seeing Red/Feeling Blue'.
Upon taking to the subterranean stage at Pirie & Co (26 June), however, the skills that allowed her to traverse the blues and cabaret divide were readily apparent. Juju is as comfortable conveying self-deprecating anecdotes as she is setting fire to the dancefloor with her sensual rhythms and incendiary passion.
While she has been honing her craft within the blues, soul and gospel genres for over 15 years, her latest album is a different beast entirely. Mojo opened the set with the lead track from her latest album, 'Your Love'. Love and its associated travails are the predominate theme of her music. When introducing the hit 'Desire' from her previous album, she described love as a sadomasochistic battlefield.
While she is in a long-term relationship, she joked she has a pact with her girlfriend to break-up every two years to facilitate the writing of tragic material. The most torrid example of this is 'Straight To Hell', a song that descends into an ugly chaos akin to Radiohead's 'National Anthem'.
The majority of her new material, however, is hook-laden confection with a blues-gospel tinge. Singles 'They Come And They Go' and 'A Heart Is Not A Yo-Yo' are earworm-laden tracks with definite hit potential. Perhaps in anticipation of this, the band has produced promotional yo-yos for sale. Equally dance-inducing was 'Paris Rain', from her previous album, which was written by her brother.
The night's set, like her new album, was schizophrenic with plenty of slow-burning blues howlers to balance out the upbeat tunes. Mojo didn't delve very deep into her back catalogue, but she did play one track from her an early 'Snake Oil Merchant's album. She also played the gut-bucket gospel track 'Brother, Where You Been?' and closed her set with the murder ballad, 'Psycho'.
Despite suffering from a cold, the fervent crowd coaxed a two-track encore from the under-the-weather show-woman. To her credit, the only sign of her illness was intermittent coughing between tracks.
Given the nature of her music, it is imperative that Mojo have a skilled band by her side. At the outset of the performance, she introduced and paid credit to her outstanding band. Her righthand man and saxophonist, Darcy McNulty, played an essential role in adding soul to her sound.
It was an evening of music perfectly suited to the speakeasy surrounds of Pirie & Co Social Club.
