I Just Read About That…

[ATTENDED: May 15, 2025] Japanese Breakfast

We had seen Japanese Breakfast play their last American show for a year or so on Halloween 2023.  It was a lot of fun and felt like a really special night.

When they announced their new album, For Melancholy Brunettes… I was concerned because that sounded like a bummer of an album.  And, first single Orlando in Love wasn’t especially gripping.  It was pretty, but didn’t really have a hook.

But I knew that they always put on a good show so it was definitely worth seeing.

The curtain rose on a giant clam shell, which Michelle Zauner came out and sat in and played Here is Someone and Orlando in Love.

She switched from acoustic to electric guitar and returned to the clamshell throughout the show.

The rest of the stage was cool too, with a nautical theme and billowing smoke.

They played three songs from the new albums, with Honey Water being the most upbeat.  But they didn’t stay on this vibe for the whole show because they moved on to the Soft Sounds album, playing three great songs, Road Head, Boyish and The Body is a Blade.

Then it was back to the new album for the bouncy Mega Circuit and the more chill Leda.

They only played one song from Psychopomp, and then moved up to Jubilee for the bouncy Slide Tackle.  A few more new songs were followed by Kokomo, a really fun song from Jubilee.

While the album is kind of a downer, Michelle was a lot of fun on stage, skipping around and dancing and always full of smiles.  She had joked that it was weird she wasn’t playing a venue with a coat check named after her (Union Transfer, where she worked a long time ago, has such a coat check and she played there several nights in a row back in the day).

Before the start of Men in Bars, Michelle walked over to the side of the stage by the piano.  A lit up neon sign said Melancholy Inn.  They sipped martinis and then drummer Craig Hendrix sang the Jeff Daniels parts.

Near the end of the set she walked over to the drummer and keyboardist who had a neon sign that said Melancholy Inn.

For me, the highlight was when they blew my mind and played a cover of Air’s Playground Love.  With a full complement of musicians, (violin, sax, guitar, bass and keys) the song sounded gorgeous.  We hadn’t gotten to see Air when they played The Met and this was as good as being there.

They ended the set with Posing in Bondage and after a brief break, continued with more Jubilee tracks including an always wonderful Paprika (with light up gong) and a fantastically fun Be Sweet.

They ended with a really fun Driving Woman.  Depending on which direction the next Japanese Breakfast album goes in, I may not need  to see them again.  They are a great live band, but I need more bangers and less melancholia.

♠ For Melancholy Brunettes & sad women (2025)
⊗ = Sable soundtrack (2021)
♥ = Jubilee (2021)
§ = Soft Sounds from Another Planet (2017)
¶ = Psychopomp (2016)