Japanese Breakfast Captivate Brooklyn Steel on Friday Night

October 15, 2021

Japanese Breakfast Captivate Brooklyn Steel on Friday Night

Japanese Breakfast – Brooklyn Steel – October 15, 2021

At the second show of a four-night run at Brooklyn Steel, Japanese Breakfast’s Michelle Zauner took the stage wearing all white, alight with an angelic sheen. Is that a wedding dress? No, Zauner was actually wearing a white sailor fuku, a typical Japanese school uniform. The stage design behind her consisted of orbs of varying sizes. According to Smooth Technology, the production house responsible, the orbs were in fact persimmons, but when the lights, commanded by lighting designer Kat Borderud, shone silvery-white, they looked like full moons.

While Zauner didn’t end up transforming into Sailor Moon, Japanese Breakfast’s show on Friday was animated and raucous, giving life to their moody third album, Jubilee, released last year. Still, though, saxophonist Adam Schatz and the rest of a bright brass section lent the night’s music a husky ambience. A highlight: When Zauner sat at her Wurlitzer piano and announced, “We’re gonna play a Dolly Parton cover, it’s not ‘Jolene,’” and launched into a sweet rendition of Parton’s “Here You Come Again.” And as Jubilee’s “Slide Tackle” built to its rollicking coda, the balloon drop that had been threatened all night finally unfurled, and at that moment the orbs onstage seemed more like disco balls.

For the encore, opener Luna Li joined on violin for a new, untitled song. Earlier in the night, Li had remarked during her set that, as a Korean-American, seeing Japanese Breakfast years ago had been the first time she had seen herself represented onstage. Since Japanese Breakfast’s last tour, Michelle Zauner has been busy becoming the author of the bestselling memoir Crying in H Mart, but on Friday night at Brooklyn Steel, she reminded a packed audience why she came to prominence as one of indie rock’s most dynamic and captivating performers. —Adlan Jackson | @AdlanKJ

Photos courtesy of DeShaun Craddock | dac.photography