Review – Pony Takes a Powder

Mojo Juju cuts a dapper figure as the poster child of the Adelaide Cabaret Festival, but it’s as a performer that she really takes centre stage. With crooning vocals and wry humour, Mojo recreates the atmosphere of a seedy dive bar straight out of the 1940s, singing of criminal misdeeds, wanton desire and broken hearts. It’s a moody, smoky affair, and also a playful one – when Mojo drops her composure to crack a grin, you know she’s having just as much fun as the audience is.

The format of the show is straight and clean: Mojo previews each song with a little story to set the scene, mixing hardboiled metaphors with shadowy cliches, and then launches into one of her heady, grinding songs. Some are slow, some are a little faster; all of them are refined, textured and sometimes surprising. Mojo croons her way through the title track, for example, and uses a little staccato burst on “Frankie Baby” that just thrums. With accompaniment from sauve and talented musicians –  Tim Murphy on double bass, Darcy McNulty on saxophone and Phil Smiley on drums – what you’re in for with Pony Takes a Powder is a saucy and delightful hour of entertainment.

Mojo Juju is an all round class act: this is a perfect date night activity, or dress-up event. Mojo knows how to drop a line and get a laugh, and she definitely knows how to dress, but what she does best of all is belt out revisionist blues tunes that transport you across space and time. If you can’t get Mojo on the Australia tour, find her album on Spotify for those cold, dark winter nights.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UpayoMrd3CI&w=400]