Live Review: Teen Jesus & The Jean Teasers at The Octagon, Sheffield

I’d read a review of Teen Jesus & the Jean Teasers in this very zine that plucked at my pop-punk passion, so when I noticed they were touring the UK as support for the Vaccines, I was determined to check them out. Although I almost missed them, not having twigged that the gig had been moved from the O2 Academy, which seems to still be closed due to crumbly concrete concerns. Sheffield’s venue woes aside, the Octagon served as a perfectly acceptable alt-venue (and certainly cheaper, booze-wise).

Teen Jesus & the Jean Teasers (or TJJT as their merch describes them), emerged out of Canberra and into the world in 2015. And they haven’t exactly been mucking about since then. They’ve just completed a 6-week tour of 10 countries on the back of supported the Foo Fighters and winning Best Independent Punk Album or EP at the 2023 AIR Awards for their EP Pretty Good For A Girl Band.

Described variously as playing Riot Grrl, post-grunge and punk-rock, when asked how they would describe their music to their grandma they said “our music is up to interpretation for all the grandmas in the world”. So, as someone old enough to be their actual grandma, I accept the challenge.

Teen Jesus & the Jean Teasers play really quite magnificent pop-punk. And why do I say that, I hear you think? Well because on the one hand, it’s a broad church, and their church is very broad – there’s emo, new wave, rock, punk, post-punk and most definitely pop in there (but let’s not go down the genre-route, lest we recreate the madness that is Spotify’s genre-obsession – Chamber Psyche anyone?). On the other hand, their synchronistically shouted “1234” intros gave me mighty Ramones tingles – pop-punk masters who were a whole other band playing live. ‘Tis the same with Teen Jesus. Where they sound positively tamed on record, in person their confident, contained, big cat energy fills the room – you know you’d like to pet them, but you might lose a hand if you do.

In the midst of a set of pop-length, catchy, thoughtful, and punchy songs lay a little piece of genius by the name of ‘Cayenne Pepper’, a 20 second burst of punk ferocity that PolyStyrene would have been proud of. It suited them. More of this please. But songs to yell along to were not lacking – ‘Ahhh, I love you’, ‘Do you wanna play’ and ‘I used to be fun’ are all brilliantly constructed tunes that stick in your head and deserve to be future favorites. And who wouldn’t fall for vocalist Anna Ryan’s eye-rolls, giving visual emphasis to every exasperated frustration, so perfectly articulated in the lyrics they all take turns to write.

This a band who know what their instruments can do, know how to give each other space to breathe. Powerful drums and rolling bass feel a little like a rhythmic punch in the stomach, guitar and vocals grab your cheeks in a “love ya” kind of way, while telling you they know it’s shit, they’ve been there too.

They’re back in Oz as I write this, but I’m guessing they’ll return to our shores, better known and much loved. They deserve it.