Live Review: Bluejuice, Tkay Maidza, Jody

Tonight was the second of two sold-out Bluejuice farewell shows in Adelaide. The faithful bought commemorative tea-towel, T-shirt and jersey bundles for the bargain price of $80 (a five dollar saving!) but openers Jody were merchless. “We don’t have anything for sale, but we don’t have any money either so if you want to come up and give us money please do,” their lead singer said hopefully. They played a kind of sub-Kings Of Leon nondescript rock that the audience largely approved of. Unfortunately for Jody, UniBar’s sound guy had the entire right side of the PA turned off their whole set. Nice one, sound guy.

The “secret” local support was rising star Tkay Maidza, fresh from her recent Stigwood Scholarship win. The focus of her act is her impressively confident flow, but the vocal mic wasn’t quite loud enough to stand out against her DJ’s pummelling beats. Together they offered an interesting dubstep version of Violent Soho’s Covered In Chrome, then the M.I.A.-esque Chitty Bang and rumoured third single, Money Over Bitches, before ending on Brontosaurus.

Bluejuice appeared resplendent in white outfits with garish fluorescent stripes, jumping immediately into hands-in-the-air audience participation prompts. They were crowd surfing by song two, and by song three, a cleaner’s mop was in the mosh. In other words, the group reinforced its reputation for hyperactive, entertaining shows. They played the one about not telling the truth, the one about it being a shock, and a new one about George Costanza. They made a lot of self-deprecating wisecracks about being too old to be on tour, and then finished up the main set, poignantly, with the one about acting your age. Somewhere in the middle was a cover of Lana Del Rey’s Video Games, but I’d have much preferred their amazing bossa nova interpretation of The Wiggles’ Wake Up Jeff. In fact, as the six-piece placated its ravenous audience by handing out glow sticks and performing hits Vitriol and Broken Leg, I began to see Bluejuice as a sort of Wiggles for kids in their early twenties. Think about it! Each trades in undeniably catchy jingles, encourages copious audience participation, wears matching outfits and has multiple lead singers. They’re both vaguely homoerotic on stage, and (by rock standards) kind of old. And there’s no shame in that. It’s actually pretty cool! Christ knows kids that age need a Wiggles.