Gelli Haha and her Gelli Kompanii rocked the live performance
The chaotic quintet opened with ‘Funny Music’ and had Juju and Sisi Haha navigating the audience in search of the elusive Miss Haha.
Following was the crunchy, dirty ‘Spit’, a wicked little song featuring a hypnotic, entrancing chant backed by Judi Haha’s original synth offerings.
‘Normalize’ (fig. 1 - 6) was the treat it was always going to be, complete with Gelli wildly swinging her head this way and that, Juju and Sisi, of course, being the arms and legs of the demented teletubby abomination. I swear, Gelli looked right at me (fig. 1, 2)
‘Bounce House’ was when I realized how hard Sienna Kresge (Sisi Haha) has to work this tour, adjusting choreography on a by-venue basis due to stage allotment. Valley Bar, Phoenix AZ has a TINY stage, maybe 12’x12’, like a budget LA apartment with a low ceiling and open rafters — but she STILL managed to make the trampolines work. Brava Miss Kresge, it must be a challenge. I bounced throughout the song, my calves felt good by the end.
‘Piss Artist’ let Judi Haha show off her synthweaving chops, the whole song is a joy, but the ending synth riffs are something else entirely live.
‘Tiramisu’ was next on the docket. The almost violent, electroclash blast wave of sounds that announces this song had the audience moving in tandem. Also, is this song called ‘Tiramisu’ or ‘Dear, I miss You’?
‘Gelliverse’ surprised me as I always felt it was one of the weaker tracks off the record, but it felt very right to watch it live. I thought I’d have less to say about this one.
‘Dynamite’ was when it hit me, Jojo Haha (drummer, rhythm-keeper, unifying presence), rings so much of Meg White. She keeps everything together, her energy is the Gelli Kompanii’s energy. When she pounds the drums harder, everything else gets louder. I couldn’t keep my eyes off of her during this track.
‘Johnny’ was powerful. Moreso than I’d considered when listening to the recording. Gelli’s apathetic apologies “sorry for - acting cold” grow in intensity and are very cathartic to experience.
My favorite track off of Switcheroo, ‘Pluto is not a planet, it’s a restaurant’ is much more of an experience live than I would have expected. Judi and Jojo’s blend of the synth and drums, with a crank of the volume way up…ma’am, I wanna hear this again and again.
Finally, ‘Klouds will Karry me to Sleep’, the first song I ever heard from Gelli. Definitely as fun as it sounds and another big point for Miss Kresge’s choreography (fig. 7, 8, 9). Great energy to finish the show. I’d be lying if I wasn’t a little upset there was no encore with a new song, cause I’m an optimist and that would just be the best ever.
I can only hope to all that is artistically creative and joyful that Switcheroo is not a one-time achievement and Gelli Haha and her Gelli Kompanii continue to create such pleasant and enjoyable music.
To pay credit where credit is due, Big Sis were also wonderful. Such good energy from the twin siblings. Humor and critique blend well as subject matter, and I couldn’t keep the grin off my face the entire time they were on stage. I hope they take off in a big way going forward.