Janine – Tuning Fork, 7 March 2024: Review

Janine is an Indie Pop artist with a whole lotta Soul, and this is her first Australasian tour, launching in Auckland.

Janine Foster is born and raised in Auckland. Her overwhelming desire was to make music. She landed in Brooklyn, New York in 2011 to pursue that. She has grown as a professional in that time and success is now knocking loudly.

Prior to that she gained a bachelor’s degree in music from Auckland University. Wanting something does not guarantee success. Luck rarely plays a part. Ninety-nine and a half percent of the time it is hard work, dedication, and passion.

That is what creates the right opportunities, the ability to ride through the rejections and knock backs.

You get a hint of that from her chat on stage. She originally called herself Janine and the Mixtape. Certainly not the most inspired name but under that moniker she got industry and fan attention in one of the select few popular musical meccas in the world.

Arrives on stage to an enthusiastic response to a medium crowd at the Tuning Fork. She tells us this is her first performance in New Zealand for ten years, and she may have been on stage here in the past.

She resembles a Ronette. Dark hair done up in a sort of bouffant. Dressed in sensual black leather, with a loose white top.

It’s a killer look and she carries the night with a beatific smile. She may be a little nervous.

She has sold-out venues in New York, and she has an enthusiastic fan base in the big country.

There is a paradox here, in that music and the arts in general find it difficult in Auckland. Many local musicians say they can find it tough to sell here but do much better in the provinces.

She is a local made good in New York. But the same hoo-doo still casts its shadow.

I think it is because Auckland is nowhere near a great city. It is just an overgrown provincial town, and as boring as a lot of ex-pats from abroad say it is.

The closest vibrant music scenes are in Melbourne, Sydney, and Brisbane. A tsunami of Kiwis have headed there in the last three years.

She begins with 3AM, Best Thing and You Deserve It. She can sing in a girly, affected tone which sounds so familiar this millennium. She is a soprano, but she has a startling high tone that she can sustain with ease.

She resembles a classic Girl Group singer on stage tonight. She can sound like Britney Spears, but she has more in her vocal arsenal.

The songs sound like a young woman’s bedsit angst.

Unstable she tells us is an early song and it addresses toxic relationships and behaviour. It is off her 99 album (2018).

I know I’m sleeping with the devil/ You make me cry to dry my eyes and be the hero.

A good Pop song with emotional tension and it is a highlight tonight. Pain and suffering produce better art than peace and calm. It underpins a lot of Country, Blues and Folk music.

Janine has named Mariah Carey, Janet Jackson, and Celine Dion as major inspirations.

Phil Spector married a Ronette and was crazy over Celine. He produced a lot of her on tape, none of which saw the light of day. I think he would have found Janine’s vocal range captivating.

Electric Feel, a cover of an MGMT song is smooth Pop Soul with some subtle jazz accents, especially from Dylan the drummer.

Lose My Mind is a song of idealistic infatuation as love. It is one of a few songs where Sam the guitarist plays piano tones as a coda.

There are more jazz elements heard as the set progresses.

Broke Me Down. The sole song where she picks up an acoustic guitar. You go and make a mess and then you blame everyone else/ Baby you broke me down. She sings like a Pop thrush, and it heads toward Country territory.

Never the Right Time is theatrical swing and dance, and it is distinguished by a high piercing vocal finish.

She does emphasise the importance of positivity in her approach to life of late. There are hints of struggles and calamities.

Introduces Loving Me in this fashion. When she sings and I still blamed you for the times you cried, she is addressing her own younger self.

Hold Me ends the show with plenty of Soul inside the Pop tune. It is off her early Dark Mind EP (2014).

Janine has a captivating voice with impressive technique. She is judicious and doesn’t overplay it. Certainly, she has had success in America. But it is a crowded field to get higher and she seems ready for it.

Rev. Orange Peel

Photographs courtesy of 13th Floor