Japanese House Setlist quinnie Setlist
THE JAPANESE HOUSE TOUR DATES DEC 1 WOOLY'S DES MOINES, IA
DEC 2 FINE LINE MINNEAPOLIS, MN DEC 3 METRO CHICAGO, IL DEC 5 THE MAJESTIC THEATRE DETROIT, MI DEC 6 DANFORTH MUSIC HALL TORONTO, ON DEC 8 LE STUDIO TD MONTREAL, QC DEC 9 HIGHER GROUND, BALLROOM BURLINGTON, VT DEC 10 ROADRUNNER BOSTON, MA MAY 7 SWG3 GLASGOW, UK MAY 8 O2 INSTITUTE BIRMINGHAM, ENGLAND MAY 9 ROUNDHOUSE LONDON, ENGLAND MAY 10 ALBERT HALL MANCHESTER, UNITED KINGDOM Read More
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Indie pop rock band The Japanese House made a stop at a very sold-out Liberty Hall to charm the rabid, loyal, and mostly college-age crowd.
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The evening began with a well-received forty-minute set from New Jersey folk/bedroom pop Columbia Records artist quinnie, in support of debut full-length, flounder, but also played many new, yet-to-be-released songs, much to the delight of her many following fans.
Performing as a trio (with jake weinberg, and hudson pollock), the music is somewhat simple, imbuing the elements of 60’s/70’s dreamy folk with delicate higher-pitch vocals; but lyrically, there can often be an honest, revealing, and sometimes profane twist on the classic themes of love, loss, and relationships. Oh, and she obviously doesn’t care for capital letters on anything (very e.e.cummings).
From the opening new track “ripple” to new song “for you” (about having the ideal relationship, as well as the love between her parents), to the winter-themed “silver second” the crowd seemed completely enthralled with every note. This was even more evident towards the end of the set, as they played “touch tank”, a song which went TikTok viral last Spring, and the set-closing “gold star’, an early track from a 2019 EP that was written while in high school.
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Lawrence was lucky to host the return of The Japanese House aka Buckinghamshire singer songwriter Amber Bain, as one of the 29 stops of her first US Tour since 2019, in support of new album, In the End It Always Does (out in June via The 1975’s label, Dirty Hit).
Supposedly, the story behind the band name came from a childhood week-long stay at an actual Japanese-esque tea house in Cornwall, UK (once owned by actor Kate Winslet), that became very creatively impressionable to Bain as a young child. Bain’s own musical breakthrough was being added as support for The 1975 and we’ve been fortunate to see the band headlining live previously both in 2019 and in 2017.
The seventy-minute set (band on stage surrounded in a thin mist and often low lighting) began with the second single from the new record, the sullenly beautiful “Sad to Breathe” and Bain lyrically emoting, “It's sad to breathe the air when you're not there.”
Many of the songs (more so the upbeat ones), sound musically familiar to The 1975 (who we’re big fans of and covered continuously as they started out) because many were co-written and co-produced by that band’s drummer, George Daniel (himself, newly engaged to Charli XCX!).
Bain and band seemed to be naturally having fun during the evening, not saying too much between songs to the sold-out crowd, who remained in rapt attention throughout. “Let’s try a couple classics”, Bain mentioned before the familiar notes of 2019’s “Follow My Girl” and “Saw You in a Dream”, to the shrieking delight of the females lined along the front barricade.
Bain dedicated the important recent single, “Boyhood” to “all the queers in the room”, a song about finding one’s own true identity, and as Bain has said, “This song talks about how sometimes, however hard you try, you can’t help but be a product of the things that happened to you or held you back earlier on in life. But also, and more importantly, it’s about hope for overcoming those things.”
“That’s enough sad time for a bit... some happy times!” Bain declared before “Friends”, about confidently moving on from a relationship, and set to a very Daniel/1975 percussive beat. “Enough kind-of happiness let’s get to the sad sh*t” Bain soon remarked, going back to 2020’s “Chewing Cotton Wool” about seeing a face everywhere and in everything.
The main set would end with Bain’s 2020 collaboration with Bon Iver’s Justin Vernon, “Dionne”, lyrically personifying longing singing “Wishing that someone would film the way I'm looking at you” then darting off, before quickly returning for a two-song encore.
A piano was rolled out for the somber, “One for sorrow, two for Joni Jones” from the new record and featured Bain’s stream of consciousness lyrics, “You seem to love me more when other people are around, it feels something like I'm missing you, but also like I'm missing me.”
The rest of the band would rejoin to close with the new album’s upbeat lead single, “Sunshine Baby”, a studio collab with The 1975’s Matty Healy and named after her dog’s nickname, as well as an ex, and her euphemism for just relaxing on a beach.
Outside, the weather had turned even more poor- a sleet-filled winter mix as crowd goers made their way back to cars and dormitories; while inside was still the glow from the performance of The Japanese House, ideally punctuated at the end, with that needed bit of “sunshine baby”.
(Click on any image to enlarge and see in full)
THE JAPANESE HOUSE |
THE JAPANESE HOUSE |
THE JAPANESE HOUSE (Liberty Hall Lawrence KS 2023-11-30) |
THE JAPANESE HOUSE (Liberty Hall Lawrence KS 2023-11-30) |
quinnie (Liberty Hall Lawrence KS 2023-11-30) |
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