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10/09:
Japanese Breakfast at
Liberty Hall
Setlist
Tour Dates
10/10 - St Louis, MO @ Delmar Hall *
10/11 - Chicago, IL @ Thalia Hall * - SOLD OUT 10/12 - Chicago, IL @ Thalia Hall * - SOLD OUT 10/14 - Brooklyn, NY @ Brooklyn Steel * - SOLD OUT 10/15 - Brooklyn, NY @ Brooklyn Steel * - SOLD OUT 10/16 - Brooklyn, NY @ Brooklyn Steel * - SOLD OUT 10/17 - Brooklyn, NY @ Brooklyn Steel * = 10/30 - Houston, TX @ White Oak Music Hall 10/31 - Austin, TX @ Levitation 2021 11/1 - San Antonio, TX @ Paper Tiger ^ 11/3 - Tucson, AZ @ Club Congress (Outdoor Plaza) ^ 11/4 - Tempe, AZ @ Coca-Cola Sun Deck ^ 11/7 - Berkeley, CA @ UC Theatre ^ 11/9 - Sacramento, CA @ Ace of Spades ^ 11/11 - Sonoma, CA @ Gundlach Bundschu Winery ^ 11/12 - San Luis Obispo, CA @ Madonna Inn ^ 11/13 - Santa Cruz, CA @ The Catalyst ^ 11/14 - Perris, CA @ Desert Daze ^ 11/15 - Pomona, CA @ The Glass House ^ 11/16 - Pomona, CA @ The Glass House ^ 3/13 - Madrid, ES @ Sala Independence 3/14 - Barcelona, ES @ Sala Apolo 3/16 - Paris, FR @ La Maroquineire 3/17 - Antwerp, BE @ Trix 3/19 - Amsterdam, NE @ Paradiso Noord 3/20 - Hamburg, HH @ Molotow Musikclub 3/21 - Copenhagen, DE @ Hotel Cecil 3/22 - Berlin, DE @ Franzz Club 3/23 - Cologne, DE @ Luxor 3/25 - Bristol, UK @ SXW 3/26 - Manchester, UK @ Academy 2 3/27 - Glasgow, UK @ St. Luke's 3/28 - Leeds, UK @ Brudenell Community Room 3/30 - London, UK @ Kentish Town Forum 6/9 - Porto, PT @ NOS Primavera Sound Festival * w/ Luna Li # w/ Charly Bliss ^ w/ SASAMI Read More
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It’s enough to feel a little self-inadequate, in the best possible way--
While most of us have spent these pandemic months hunkered down, navigating online meetings, and putting on those “quarantine fifteen” pounds, Japanese Breakfast (aka Michelle Zauner) is living a charmed life-
She’s managed to release an upbeat new album, Jubilee (on Dead Oceans), become a best-selling author (and also have that book optioned by MGM/Orion), make the soundtrack to video game Sable, even create an ice-cream flavor of her own, and now she makes her way back out on tour to play live to her biggest audiences to date. It’s definitely been her year.
The tour made its way into the heartland, playing a crowded Liberty Hall in Lawrence, KS on a breezy but pleasant Saturday night. Opening the evening was headliner-approved and one of our new favorite bands, Toronto’s Luna Li. Like the main act, the four-person band started essentially as a solo project from multi-instrumentalist songwriter Hannah Bussiere Kim and grew from there. Though we didn’t see her play all nine instruments she knows in their forty-minute set, she did switch between several and gave the crowd a healthy taste of her sound from recent instrumental EP, jams (on Real Life Music) with a full debut, due out early next year.
Dressed in orange ath-leisure wear, she and her band were a welcome and fitting compliment to the headliner, and Kim often beamed with glee to be playing in these parts for the first time. The music itself was lush, swooning and often ethereal, unafraid to go into wordless passages as she took parts of genres and re-launched them onto a unique dreamy plain, even inviting the audience to close their eyes to better experience the soundscapes.
Also of Korean heritage, Kim praised the headliner, saying seeing them live a few years ago was the first time she could directly relate to someone on stage, which in turn gave her added inspiration to further pursue her own musical dreams.
Like a proud parent, we’ve watched Japanese Breakfast grow from the very beginning-- as previously mentioned, we covered her four times in less than two years – from opening slots in 2016(Mitski at 7th Street in July 2016, Porches at 7th Street in Sep 2016, Slowdive at Palace Theatre in May 2017and then finally headlining at Triple Rock in Oct 2017.
The seventy-five minute set literally opened with a gong-banging beginning as the opening track from Jubilee, “Paprika” found Zauner dancing about in a flowing frilly pink dress and goth boots, smashing the small gong near her keyboard with the song’s chorus multiple times.
“Be Sweet” also from the new record followed, turning the sound more electronic with the most faithful along the front rail singing “I wanna believe”back to, and along with Zauner. Zauner paused briefly before “Kokomo, IN” to address the crowd on her first time in the area, smiling often and mentioning she was so pleased to hear her own music playing earlier in stores down the street from the theater.
After some keyboard tuning, Zauner and band played their deepest cut of the evening, “Ballad O” from 2020’s Pop Songs, an EP made in quarantine with Crying’s Ryan Galloway under the name Bumper but this night,it was re-invented as more of murder-ballad with vocal help from drummer Craig Hendrix.
With Zauner remaining on piano, the laid back vibes continued with their cover of Dolly Parton’s 1977 hit, “Here You Come Again”, a seemingly obscure choice, but one that found Zauner hitting the twang and cadence of the song and high notes with admirable expertise. “Boyish”, a 2014 song from Zauner’s previous Philadelphia band Little Big League was next, proving further that the setlist could unabashedly look back, as well as forward.
“It’s rather unfortunate I have to sing a song about someone I don’t like very much… facing someone I like quite a bit!” Zauner said, prefacing the new and very personal “Tactics” inspired by the toxic relationship with her father, as she sat across from husband Peter Bradley on guitar.
The main set would end with an exclamation in the form of 2016’s “Everybody Wants to Love You” and the crowd joining Zauner and band’s infectious effervescence of joyously being able to play live again, visibly feeding from the energy of the shared musical experience.
The two-song encore began with the new album’s final track, “Posing for Cars”, an introspective relationship song that Zauner began alone, before the rest of the band eventually joined as the overall volume strengthened and reverb and pedal effects enveloped the song’s ending.
Zauner sang “I want it all” on the evening’s final song, 2017’s “Diving Woman” and based on her many recent accomplishments and the still-rising success of Japanese Breakfast, it’s fair to say she achieved everything she’s wished for.
(click any image to enlarge and see in full)
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Japanese Breakfast at Liberty Hall, Lawrence, KS (2021-10-09) |
| john ([email protected]) ♥ weheartmusic.com ♥ twitter.com |
A great performer, & it's so wonderful to be able to re-live the shows through the eyes of this reviewer!
Posted by: Brian Davenport | 10/12/2021 at 12:29 AM