17/05/2025

Joan As Police Woman – Raye Freedman Arts Centre: May 16, 2025

Joan As Police Woman returned to Auckland, kicking off a three-date solo New Zealand tour that finds her highlighting songs from her latest album, Lemons, Limes and Orchids.

When we last saw (and heard) Joan, it was with a full band at the Hollywood Avondale. This time around, it’s a much more intimate affair.

And, come to think of it, “affair” is the appropriate word, since there was a lot of love flowing back and forth from stage to audience during the two 45-minute sets.

Joan As Police Woman (aka Joan Wasser)may not be the biggest-selling, or mot popular singer-songwriter, but once fans discover her, they seemed to be hooked for life.

I was curious about the venue.

The Raye Freedman Arts Centre is in Newmarket, part of Epsom Girls Grammar, and, from what I understand, the promoters chose the little-used space because of the need for a well-maintained grand piano.

The piano looked and sounded great and the venue itself felt warm and inviting, once the sold-out crowd had lined up for drinks, causing the show to begin slightly later than planned.

“So very nice to be here”, exclaimed Joan, dressed in white, “thank you for meeting me here”, noting, “I noticed you drank the bar dry already”.

Joan got down to business, opening the show with Honor Wishes, taken from her second album, 2008’s To Survive.

For those not familiar with JAPW, she’s been making her special brand of jazz/pop/folk/electronica for a couple of decades now. For comparison, I guess Joni Mitchell comes to mind because of the complex song structures, uncommon chord progressions and intelligent, intimate lyrics. Plus Joan has a voice to match her musical adventures.

Tonight’s show was divided into two 45-minute sets…no opening act…and they both seemed to fly by.

Highlights of the first set were To Be Loved, also from To Survive, where she claims to be “an awful mess” (a recurring theme), followed by Feed The Light, taken from Real Life, her 2006 debut album and written while stuck in a van on tour with an annoying someone. Apparently her options were murder or writing a song.

Its these little insights dropped in throughout the evening that made the show special.

And the new songs went over well too.

Set two began with three of them, with the title track featuring a droning violin backing track (also played by Joan)…since she was already singing and playing piano, live violin was not an option (where’s John Cale wwhen you need him?)

Both sets also features a few songs on guitar with I Was Everyone turning into the audience into a choir as we sang “Be heard” and Joan sang, “You are the chosen one”

The night ended with The Magic and then The Ride as an encore.

As Joan Wasser took her bows and a couple of curtsies, everyone in the room knew that they had witnessed something special.

Joan did, at one point, plead with us to buy merch and tell friends about the shows in Wellington and Christchurch as there are still tickets available for both shows.

“Please tell them…I need your help” Joan implored.

Marty Duda

JAPW plays in Wellington tonight and in Christchurch tomorrow. Click here for tickets

Click on any image to view a photo gallery by Chris Zwaagdyk: