Geneva Jacuzzi / Riki – Moth Club, Hackney, London, 11th Feb 2025 – Well that was busy, another cold dull February Tuesday in East London and the Moth Club is surprisingly packed, it is a bit of a push to actually get in, there’s certainly excitement in the the air once you do. Riki is going down well as we arrive, Riki and labelmate Geneva Jacuzzi are touring Europe together and it says here “the evolution of Los Angeles new romantic icon Riki is as dynamic as it is undeniable. From early formative years playing in Bay Area goth-punk unit Crimson Scarlet to the birth of her synth-pop solo alias in 2017”. Don’t know about icon, everyone and everything is iconic these days, vibrantly so. Riki’s art-pop is full of energy tonight, a positive hit, an adrenalin rush of confident 80s retro electro Bananarama-flavoured pop with just enough edge in there with that touch of melancholy, those sharp moves and a thing at the tip of the tongue as arms go up and well, colours are flowing in Hackney tonight…  

Geneva Jacuzzi’s art is why were here though, the reason for the long walk all the way to the other end of Mare Street. Her entrance is dramatic, aided by her black-clad balaclava wearing male dancers she has some kind of giant black and white almost Devo-ish cone over her head, it is a spectacular start, massive cheers as soon as she is spotted, she has the crowd won from the off as she wades straight into to the middle of us all, can she even see where’s she’s going? How long are those arms? Geneva Jacuzzi, it says here, is “well known for her uncompromisingly obtuse synth-driven pop and one-of-a-kind performance art”, and yes, it does feel deliciously obtuse, bright, positively demanding. It feels deliciously alive in here, her music really does come to life when she can perform it, when she has an audience, and right now she had an adoring audience and her art is dangerous, her art is serious, nothing delicate, hang her on the wall. The place is moving, the smiles are wide. All the way from LA for a cold Tuesday in Hackney, was it worth it, she’s clearly loving it, the place is more than warm as the cone comes off three quarters of the way through second (or was it third?) song in Art In Dangerous to big cheers.

She clearly has a cult following, a following that’s clearly going to grow, she’s dealing out a cool as flip take on 80s performance-based electro pop, can we get away with mentioning Madonna? No, that’s far too lazy and this is Geneva Jacuzzi’s own blood thrown onto her electric fire, her own clown-like machines in search of sadness, she’s cut from a different hue. Again some of it sounds and more importantly feels like New Romantic performance pop and deliciously 80s and as much as Art In Dangerous is the stand out there’s plenty more here from the scene ballerina, it is almost over stimulation as the sugar keeps rushing and her now way beyond lo-fi bedroom pop bites, as her her self declared anthropo-humanoid simulation takes us with her. hey, it was great, it as brilliant actually, my phone didn’t get anywhere near catching it, guess you had to be there, the screens and their silhouettes behind them can’t create barriers between the laps of luxury, neither can the always awful Moth Club sound. Casket is dark, Bow Tie Eater is delicious, it bites so much more live than it does on the recent album Triple Fire, it all does, this was the proper art of performance, this was proper pop art on a warmer than warm Tuesday night in Hackney, the footage won’t tell you, the recording don’t quite, it was all about being there, all about the moment(s), the art of it all, it was dangerous, art is never meaningless, this was serious art, this was fun… (sw)       

www.genevajacuzzi.com / Riki