[ATTENDED: August 7, 2021] Japanese Breakfast
A few nights before this show, Union Transfer sent out this message
Japanese Breakfast have requested that all attendees for the remainder of their tour be vaccinated OR have tested negative for Covid in the 48 hours prior to attending a show.
And nothing made me happier than reading that. We arrived especially early thinking that the vaccination process would be slow, but the UT staff were efficient and friendly and I think everyone was pleased to feel safe and secure.
And anyone not vaccinated? Well, fuck em, they can stay home.
I saw Japanese Breakfast three years ago and found the show to be a lot of fun. I also bought a fun poster that proudly adorns our breakfast area. Since then, they have released a new album and S. has really gotten into them.
When it was announced that Japanese Breakfast would be playing the first post-pandemic show at Union Transfer, I knew we’d want to go. I grabbed tickets immediately and it sold out almost as fast. They added a second show and then a third show. One of those shows was actually BEFORE our show, which meant we didn’t get to go to the venue’s inaugural show, which was a tiny (very tiny) but disappointing.
She ultimately wound up selling out five nights in a row–a Union Transfer record. Go Michelle!
She also noted that the folks on our night were “spicier” than the Friday night crowd. No doubt because we were the big fans who grabbed tickets right away. Or she was just saying that.
When I saw her in 2018 she told us
[Quotes and quoted passages are from an article at The Key
“I fucking used to work coat check here,” Zauner told the audience as she gazed into the sold out crowd at UT.] It was the first time she had headlined Union Transfer.
Last time, the band was her husband Peter Bradley on bass and drummer Craig Hendrix. For this show, her band had expanded.
[Quotes and quoted passages are from a different article at The Key]
In addition to the core band of Zauner, guitarist / keyboardist Peter Bradley, bassist Deven Craige [who was in Little Big League with her and who plaed one song with her last time], and drummer Craig Hendrix, JBrekkie 3.0 is augmented by Ohmme’s Macie Stewart on violin, and West Philly’s Eliza Hardy Jones on keyboards, with an all-Philly horn section — Jill Ryan of Great Time on saxophone, Koof Ibi Umoren on trumpet, and St. Clair Simons on trombone — picked out specifically for these shows. For “Paprika,” Mannequin Pussy’s Kaleen Reading joined to play a marching snare beat while Zauner accentuated the chorus with gong hits, and it sounded magnificent.
The band came out at 9:20. The stage was simple–big white polka dots on a black curtain. Then the polka dots turned out to be lights, and the whole stage was a glow with various colored lights. It was pretty great.
They opened the set with the first five songs from Jubilee. “Paprika” was a great opening because Michelle hit a gong over and over (and I do love a gong). It was surprising to have “Be Sweet” the huge new single second, but the crowd was ready for it and we danced like fools.
A few songs in she said that she had decided to change up the setlist that they had been playing “Which won’t mean anything to you, but really messes me up.”
She played guitar, switched to keyboards, changed guitars and sometimes sang with no instrument at all. She was all over the stage, full of smiles and furtive glances. It was such a joy-filled show.
It’s interesting to me the way she mixed up a few songs from night to night (we did not get the song “In Hell”). In fact we got one fewer song than the Friday night crowd–doesn’t a spicier audience deserve that song?
After playing seven new songs, she jumped back to the Psychopomp album for “In Heaven” and “The Woman That Loves You.” S. has been really enjoying the song “Road Head” which Japanese Breakfast released as a Spotify single and which Sarah put in heavy rotation. It’s from her first album and really made S.’ night that they played it. It rocked harder than the single, too.
Then it was time for a couple of covers. I see that she has been covering Dolly Parton, but we didn’t get that song (S. seems to have very bad luck with seeing anything related to Dolly live–see Newport Folk Festival). She played “Ballad 0” by Bumper (Zauner’s side project) and the super catchy “Boyish” a song from her old band Little Big League. The night was a celebration of drummer Craig Hendrix. He has apparently done a lot of work with Michele and about this song she said
“When we were in Little Big League, this song really sucked, and you made it into something beautiful. His parents Bill and Linda are here, they just celebrated their 52nd wedding anniversary,” Zauner said, turning to Hendrix to continue her thoughts. “I’ve become such a better musician because of you. We all have. We love you very much and don’t say it enough.”
After one more older song, the intense “The Body is a Blade” she played the super fun and dancey “Everybody Wants to Love You” and then went for an encore break.
She asked if she had time to “do this” and called for Sean Agnew to come up on stage. I laughed because it wasn’t even 10:30 yet (she played for an hour before going for an encore break). She then (as I quote The Key once more)
told the story, as she often tells at Philly shows, of how she used to work at the venue, starting off in coat check and concessions. “I didn’t even really have the ambition at that time to be like ‘that’ll be me one day,’” she said. ” I was just like, “I want to work at a cool venue.” A new wrinkle to the tale that we’ve never heard before: Zauner said somebody once paid for a $1 pretzel with what turned out to be a fake $100 bill, and she gave them $99 in actual change. The shift manager said it had to come out of her check, but “Sean, my boss, paid it off for me. And now we’ve paid him back by playing five sold-out shows at Union Transfer!”
She then handed him a $100 bill and Agnew held it up to the light to confirm its legitimacy.
In related news, Union Transfer has re-named its coat-check room — where Zauner was employed while interning for R5 Productions in the mid-20teens — has been officially re-named the Michelle Zauner coat check room.
After the encore break,
Zauner gave one more dedication: to Bradley, her guitarist and husband, and to his parents Fran and Joe, also watching from the riser. “My whole life fell apart six years ago,” she said, nodding to the passing of her mother Chongmi, detailed in Zauner’s bestselling memoir Crying in H Mart. “I’m lucky to have you as a family, I’m so grateful to know you, truly. I’m grateful for the man that you raised, and brought into my life, he kept me alive, truly.”
She played the lovely “Posing for Cars” which started with just her playing guitar. After a verse or two, Bradley came out to join her. And then the rest of the band came out, turning the song into one of epic granduer. Michele even played some guitar solos to get the full jam effect going. There was more jamming on “Diving Woman” with Michele jumping on the drum riser and showing off her kick ass boots.
It was such a great show and with everyone vaccinated and masked, it felt like we could all breathe (literally) easily and just have a great time.
It was an excellent time back.
SETLIST
- Paprika ♥1
- Be Sweet ♥2
- Kokomo, IN ♥3
- Slide Tackle ♥4
- Posing in Bondage ♥5
- Savage Good Boy ♥7
- Tactics ♥9
- In Heaven ¶
- The Woman That Loves You ¶
- Road Head §
-
Ballad 0 (Bumper cover)
-
Boyish (Little Big League song) §
-
The Body Is a Blade §
-
Everybody Wants to Love You ¶
Encore: -
Posing for Cars ♥10
-
Diving Woman §
♥ = Jubilee [did not play “Sit” or “In Hell”]
¶ = Psychopomp
§ = Soft Sounds from Another Planet
I don’t have a setlist from the previous show, but I know she played these songs that time
Diving Woman
In Heaven
Road Head
Machinist
Boyish (Little Big League song)
Heft
Rugged Country
12 Steps
Triple 7
Till Death
Year of the Sunhouse (Little Big League song) [with the rest of Little Big League]
Lindsey (Little Big League song) [with the rest of Little Big League]
Everybody Wants to Love You
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