Teen Jesus and the Jean Teasers
Tuning Fork, Auckland
Friday, May 22nd
There was a mixed crowd inside Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland’s Tuning Fork on Friday night, all here to see Australian rock band Teen Jesus and the Jean Teasers. It was a night for 20-somethings from all walks of life, as well as for the dads and their teenage kids. But who brought whom?
The much-discussed Ōtepoti Dunedin band IVY were up first, bringing the background music to a halt. Adding a violin (played by Louis Stevenson) to the usual band setup of guitar, bass, and drums, the young five-piece opened confidently with “Loon”, a dynamic crowd-winner that stopped all the chatter in the room.
Image: IVY Credit: Rosa Nevison
IVY’s vast sound is designed for rooms bigger than The Tuning Fork. Their songs combine strange chord progressions with singer Jesse Hanan’s long, brooding melodies that call to mind Jeff Buckley’s Grace; it’s music made for getting lost in, for forgetting about the time and the commute home.
There are hints of their hometown in their sound too; not necessarily notes of the ‘Dunedin Sound’ but the city itself, that cold, edge-of-the-earth feeling that is central to its personality. IVY represent that atmosphere well, adding a touch of complexity to the simple charm of golden-era bands like The Clean and The Chills.
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Image: IVY Credit: Rosa Nevison
They ended with “Blank White”, a set highlight, which featured tasteful harmonies by guitarist James Axton, a strong partnership between drummer Ocean Temple Wilson and bassist Connor Cooper, and a drawn-out ending that allowed the band to step away from their microphones and throw themselves around the stage.
As IVY’s excellent set came to an end, the packed Tuning Fork crowd acknowledged it as a success, applauding and cheering after Hanan’s humble request that we all go home and give their album Hush a listen.
It was a short wait for the lights to go down again. Teen Jesus and the Jean Teasers took the stage and swiftly launched into “I Love You”, which isn’t the ballad that the title might suggest. It set the scene perfectly; such uptempo, power-chord-heavy and incredibly catchy tunes are what they’re known for.
Image: Teen Jesus and the Jean Teasers Credit: Rosa Nevison
“AHHHH!”, which came a few songs later, was the best of this batch, a simple but brilliant garage-rock track that earns its right to have a chorus that says no more than “ahhhh!” The phones were out to film it, and the dads were tapping their feet.
Scattered throughout Teen Jesus’s set were plenty of tracks from 2025’s GLORY, and every one of them was performed well and well-received. Album highlight “DAYLIGHT” arrived during a stripped-back portion of the show, with all four core members standing side-by-side at the front of the stage.
Image: A fan watches Teen Jesus and the Jean Teasers Credit: Rosa Nevison
Guitar, bass, and a much-discussed egg shaker did well to give these stripped-back songs all the colour they needed. Lead singer Anna Ryan sounded brilliant in what has become my favourite song of theirs, singing “how does someone get prettier in the daylight” in unison with a huge chunk of the crowd.
“MOTHER” was a late-set outlier, with guitarist Scarlett McKahey singing through the verse, painting a picture of anger, a religious character at the song’s core: “I’ve got Mary on my shoulder, her hand on my back, I’m a storm coming in…” The second and third act of “MOTHER” found Teen Jesus at their most aggressive, speeding up until they were possessed by a riff that sounded like something Tony Iommi might have conjured up.
McKahey and bassist Jaida Stevenson moved close to one another, their guitar necks flailing around. Drummer Neve Van Boxsel was perfectly restrained; as the band reached top gear, she never allowed the song to falter or slip. Teen Jesus’s experience, that level of tightness that comes from opening for major acts like Pearl Jam, was proudly on display.
Image: Teen Jesus and the Jean Teasers Credit: Rosa Nevison
It was probably necessary for Teen Jesus to play their viral cover of t.A.T.u’s “All the Things She Said” for the fans’ sake, but it stood out by relying more than any other song on backing tracks, which up until that point had sat in that sweet spot just behind the band, filling the space but not dominating their playing.
Everything was balanced and in its right place once again as they launched into “BALCONY”, a high-energy finisher from GLORY, and as the strobes were put to work and the crowd applauded through the song’s extended ending, I thought again about who brought whom, the dads or the teens? The answer will remain a mystery — it was clear that everyone, of all ages, loved Teen Jesus.
Check out Teen Jesus and the Jean Teasers’ upcoming tour dates here.
