Let me just get straight to this point: Japanese Breakfast is one of the best live acts around. I was lucky to be able to cover night 3 of Michelle Zauner’s of a four-day takeover of Brooklyn, one of many she’s been doing as part of her 2021-22 tour. After the night was through, I wish I could’ve gone to at least one more of the sold-out shows in NYC.
Opening things up was Luna Li, an artist that was completely new to me but surprised me in the greatest way possible. Her set was a mix of chill and rocking tunes by an artist slaying on the guitar like the best of ’em, and doing it all with a glowing smile in place of the expression others make when they’re in the zone that looks more like they’re in anguish rather than playing a solo.
Li’s set was a cool introduction to her range of music, too. She treated the crowd to an unreleased collab with Jay Som that was chill like a smooth ride down a coastal road, played instrumental tunes from the jams EP she made during the pandemic (for one of which she played the violin, but my fave was the guitar driven “2516”), showed off her looping skills in real time, and she’d turn things up a notch for hearty rendition of songs like “Star Stuff” and delivering some serious shredding along the way.
Toward the last few tracks of her set, Luna Li started working the crowd a little more by helping set the mood by saying things like “if you want you can close your eyes and float away with me” or sharing the anecdote of how she secured her butterfly guitar, saying “I bought it from a dad on a Facebook gear group because it was too big for his daughter. I hope his 5 year old daughter is rocking it out somewhere on a teeny tiny guitar.” She also made sure to thank Japanese Breakfast for bringing her on the tour, stating about first seeing Zauner gain recognition, “That was the first time I felt represented… and fast forward to being invited to go on tour with them for 6 weeks.”
Japanese Breakfast’s set looked like she was on a mission to best bring to life her latest work to a live setting. The stage production had a deceivingly elaborate lighting setup and Zauner herself was styled with a poofy dress that made her captivate everyone’s gaze throughout the night.
She started her set with the first two songs off her latest album, Jubilee, and not only was this a great way to get the energy up to the ceiling thanks to everyone vibing and hollering, but it was the perfect demonstration of the fans’ reception to that 2021 release. “Paprika” was beautiful with that combination of horns, marching band-style drums, and Michelle Zauner gleefully banging the gong. “Be Sweet” turned that place into a dance party.
The highlights didn’t stop there. Her live cover of Dolly Parton’s “Here You Come Again” lit up the room, and her performance of catalogue staples like “Road Head” and “The Body is a Blade” were expected crowd pleasers and were met with loud cheers when they finished.
I very much dug the performance of “Glider,” the track from her original soundtrack for the Sable video game, which was propelled by the alternating lights flickering that added a cool element to this dramatic composition and her vocals were undeniably epic. The ambient sounds and jangly instrumentation on “Posing In Bondage” were also paired beautifully with the lighting. The dots featured in the backdrop would start by twinkling in an alternating sequence, but the wow factor came when the headlights were turned to the crowd and we were beaming to the beat.
I can’t speak enough about how much I loved the horns that night. “Slide Tackle” has a solid Dance/Electronic foundation, but those sax breaks elevated the track in particular way now that it was in a concert setting. Everyone at Brooklyn Steel was bouncing and Zauner responded with that same energy by covering all the ground of the stage.
The unofficial end of her set was the energetic and playful “Everybody Wants to Love You.” The fervor with which the eponymous chorus was sung by the crowd was infectious, and it was cool to see the group feed off of that energy. It was capped off with a colorful assortment of balloons dropping from the ceiling.
Of course the show couldn’t end there. For the encore, Japanese Breakfast first played a an emotive rendition of “Posing For Cars” and followed it up with “Driving Woman” for the grand finale.
The bass groovy track wasn’t high energy but you can feel and see everyone was moving.
