Mo’Ju | Adelaide Festival 2021 review

Mo’Ju’s keen connection to country and family informs this concert, which has everything from ballads to belters.

Adelaide Festival 2021 - Mo'Ju - supplied by Adelaide Festival

Mo’Ju

Contemporary Music / AUS

FESTIVAL

Adelaide Festival Summerhouse

March 13

Yet another fine Australian artist over the moon to be back on stage, Mo’Ju delighted a large and enthusiastic crowd of rusted-on fans and a whole lot of newbies with a generous and heartfelt set.

“I will not apologise / For taking up this space” she began, quoting her 2018 album Native Tongue, which provided the lion’s share of the music for this concert.

It has everything from ballads to belters, including the popular Something Wrong and a trio of interconnected songs, Far Too Late, I Just Wanna Know and 1000 Years.

Mo’Ju’s keen connection to country and family has informed her work throughout her career. In this concert (with brother Steve on drums) – and in Native Tongue as an artistic statement in its own right – she makes a strong claim for the right to speak out about the things that matter to her, be they personal, communal or political.

On this last theme, especially in songs like Ghost Town, she is fearless.

It makes perfect sense to end the concert as she began, with Native Tongue, and its strident message: “Every time you cut me down / I’m gonna come back fierce. / The time is through for being nice / Let’s call it what it is.” Mo’Ju is a seriously classy act.

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