In one of their first stops of their U.S. tour leg, the ever-growing indie classic Japanese Breakfast filled Atlanta’s Tabernacle with ethereal glamour. The group, led by Michelle Zauner (“Crying in H-Mart”), is touring their fourth studio album “For Melancholy Brunettes (& Sad Women),” a lilting record that explores the titular feeling through Zauner’s moody lyrics backed by lush instrumentals.
Ginger Root took the stage to open out the night. Self-described as “aggressive elevator soul,” lead singer Cameron Lew energized the crowd with his fast beats, tight jams on the synth and his use of a talk box attachment to add some funk to a few of his songs. Two screens illuminated either side of the stage and presented a live video feed of the artists as a cameraman darted from stage left to stage right.
As the lights dimmed for the next act to arrive, the stage filled with fog, and the crowd fell silent. A dark figure carried a lantern across the stage. The crowd erupted when the spotlight revealed Zauner playing “Here Is Someone” from her new album, a pearl sitting in a comically large clam shell. As she continued with her hypnotic single “Orlando In Love,” it was easy to picture Zauner as the siren she sings about, literally “Venus from a shell.”
Each Japanese Breakfast album vividly encapsulates Zauner’s life through a singular emotion. While she performed, those emotions were palpable. Most of the audience members were clearly die-hard fans, and as they sang along, it was obvious that they received the tone that Japanese Breakfast set with each song. First came the pining and frustration of their hit ballad “Boyish.” Then she brought the waterworks en masse with “The Woman That Loves You.”
On this song from her first album “Psychopomp,” Zauner put down her guitar to sing about grieving the loss of her mother over breathy, upbeat tones. After reading her 2021 memoir “Crying in H-Mart” detailing Zauner’s complex relationship with her mother, the song hit even harder, and it became impossible not to shed a couple of tears.
The mood shifted when the band performed a few songs from their 2021 pop album “Jubilee.” The strong feelings of joy and desire Zauner expresses on this album really came through with the concert’s climax, “Posing In Bondage.” It started off slow and somber, her voice backed by an entrancing synth. When the lyrical portion of the song was over, Zauner started to riff and layer her own harmony. The reverb, along with the drums reached a crescendo as she invited everyone to dance. The band could not have chosen a better song to end out their main set, and they left the entire theater dancing in unison.
Zauner returned for the encore to play two of her hits. The first was “Paprika,” one of her catchiest pop songs where she intermittently bangs on a huge gong while belting “Oh, it’s a rush.” She closed the night with “Posing for Cars,” a sad but beautiful song about how she perceives love. The last words she sang perfectly encompass Zauner’s identity and so many of the prevalent feelings across her albums — “just a single slow desire fermenting.” Then, she closed out the night shredding the song’s guitar solo.
Japanese Breakfast’s live renditions of their songs convey even more emotion than their records — a feat that does not seem possible upon first listen. Catch them on the West Coast later this summer with tickets available at japanesebreakfast.rocks.