Japanese Breakfast
Sydney Opera House Concert Hall
June 3rd
About half-way through Japanese Breakfast’s debut gig at the Sydney Opera House Concert Hall, the dazzling light show that has been accompanying the music cuts out, the indie-pop six-piece formed in Philadelphia in 2013 illuminated only by basic house lights. Unperturbed, singer, songwriter and guitarist Michelle Zauner gleefully bounds around a flickering prop lantern – still working – to dance-pop highlight “Slide Tackle”.
It’s telling that Zauner and the music are no less captivating without all the colourful visual adornment, a testament to the genre-hopping, richly detailed songs and the excellent, instrument-swapping band: Peter Bradley (guitar; also Zauner’s husband), Deven Craige (bass), Craig Hendrix (drums, keyboards, backing vocals), Lauren Baba (violin and synths) and scene-stealing saxophonist Adam Schatz, who makes a solid case for a full-blown sax renaissance in pop music.
Rewind to the beginning of the performance, and Japanese Breakfast are in full theatrical flight, Zauner lighting up a darkened stage with the aforementioned lantern, complete with comical sound effects, before launching into the three opening tracks from latest album For Melancholy Brunettes (& Sad Women): the part-intimate, part-epic “Here is Someone”, which somehow successfully blends finger-picked guitar, recorders and space-age synths; the swooning strings of “Orlando in Love”; and the heavier, shoegaze-leaning “Honey Water”.
Love Music?
Get your daily dose of everything happening in Australian/New Zealand music and globally.
By the gig’s end, when the light show is once again back in full effect, all but one song from For Melancholy Brunettes (& Sad Women) gets an airing. Still, there’s plenty of tracks pulled from the band’s previous three albums to keep long-time fans happy.
Japanese Breakfast – Vivid Live. Credit: Mikki Gomez
“Road Head”, “Boyish” and “The Body Is a Blade” from 2017’s Soft Sounds from Another Planet are a reminder Japanese Breakfast have been excelling at supreme, synth-laden indie-pop for close to a decade now; and the half-a-dozen tracks from 2021 album Jubilee only underline the breadth and range of the band’s impressive catalogue.
Zauner is a charming and bright frontperson throughout, whether she’s dedicating a song to the “lesbian geese” she met earlier in the day at Taronga Zoo, or playfully dancing around and banging a large gong during “Paprika”.
By the time the band conclude the show with pop banger “Be Sweet” and the motorik guitar jam “Diving Woman”, the entire crowd is up on their feet dancing, revelling in the joy and generosity of band who are consistently fantastic and engaging, regardless if visual spectacle is on offer or not.
