08/06/2025

Japanese Breakfast – Auckland Town Hall: June 7, 2025 (13th Floor Concert Review)

Japanese Breakfast made their much-anticipated New Zealand concert debut last night, bringing their Melancholy Tour to a full house at Auckland’s iconic Town Hall.

And the Town Hall never looked better, what with the beautiful lighting design that comes part of the package…and one that worked well, throughout the band’s set, after a tech failure that found them playing in the dark for a couple of songs a few nights earlier in Sydney.

Phoebe Rings

But before we get into that, let’ turn our attention to opening act Phoebe Rings, the dream-pop quartet led by Kiwi/Korean Crystal Choi.

We’ve seen Phoebe Rings quite a number of times over the years and now they finally have a full-length album, Aseurai, out…just released the previous day.

Tonight we get seven songs over thirty minutes, most from the album…Drifting and Fading Star are standouts…along with a few “extras”

Crystal is in fine voice, the band, anchored by drummer Alex Freer is solid and the sound…barring a brief bit of feedback at the end…is impeccable.

Yet…there’s always a yet…I can’t help but feel that maybe the group’s brand of cruisey dream-pop is a little too cruisey.

They’ll be touring the US with The Beths later this year, maybe that will toughen them up. Or maybe they are happy with they way things are…

Japanese Breakfast

Japanese Breakfast is basically the vehicle for songwriter/vocalist Michelle Zauner who has grown in stature…if not physically, then certainly musically… over the past decade, becoming one of indie’s most respected voices.

And, despite the fact that this is called the “Melancholy Tour”, after latest album, For Melancholy Brunettes (and Sad Women), the word that best describes the set would be “joyous”.

Tonight, Japanese Breakfast is a six-piece powerhouse features the solid rhythm section of bass player Deven Craige and drummer Craig Hendrix. And while Hendrix got his moment in the spotlight singing Jeff Bridges’ part in Men In Bars, sax player Adam Schatz and violinist/synth player Lauren Baba really made the show shine.

But I think the highlight for me was guitarist Peter Bradley’s brief, but tasty and twangy solos.

Brandley is married to Zauner and the two of them exude love and respect throughout the show.

And then there are the songs.

We heard most of Melancholy along with a good chunk from 2021’s Jubilee, which also contributed to the joyful vibe.

Zauner herself is a consummate performer…one gets the feeling that she was born for it…prancing, jumping and even rolling around on stage.

My only complaint is that her lyrics a difficult to discern during the show. And that’s not the fault of the sound mix, but just the way she delivers them.

The crowd…a good mix of, well, everybody, loved the show…singing along spontaneously and dancing to tunes like Slide Tickle and Be Sweet.

Even though the songs tackle subjects such as depression, trauma, survival and death, that joyous feeling runs through everything that Michelle and her band play and sing.

And that’s what we felt as we piled out into the winter night of downtown Auckland.

Marty Duda

Click on any image to view a photo gallery by Michael Jeong:

Japanese Breakfast: