Phoebe Ryan @ The Foundry.

Text and images by Alicia Kay.

New Jersey native Phoebe Ryan kicked off her 2017 fall tour at The Foundry last month.

Having written for big names such as Britney Spears and Melanie Martinez, Ryan is a veteran songwriter. She wowed the crowd with her signature electro-pop sound.

Beginning with “Mine,” a fan favorite from her debut album of the same name, Ryan set the tone of the show with her heartfelt lyrics combined with a light tone, all tied together with a smile.

Because the show fell on Halloween night, Ryan first emerged wearing a handmade green robot costume her mother made, letting the crowd know that this was going to be a fun show.

She continued the show with crowd pleasers such as “Chronic,” “Dark Side” and “All We Know,” a song she collaborated on with The Chainsmokers. She also performed some brand new songs that were just released a few weeks ago on the James EP, such as “Should I,” “Aspirin,” “James Has Changed” and “Be Real.”

Ryan said the James EP tells a story from beginning to end.

“It’s not a love story,” she said. “But it is about love.”

After her set, Ryan reemerged for an encore, dawning an acoustic guitar and hopping off the stage into the audience. She performed a new, unrecorded track titled “Unicorn.“

She ended the show with a mashup of R. Kelly’s “Ignition” and Miguel’s “Do You.” It was the first song she released as a solo artist, bringing the show full circle and leaving the audience with an awe-inspiring sense of how far she has come as an artist.