Japanese Breakfast Plays to a Sold Out Hotel Congress Plaza
We caught, Japanee Breakfast, on their Jubilee North America Tour in Tucson, Az
Japanese Breakfast blessed a sold-out crowd on November 3, 2021, with a stop at Club Congress in Tucson, Arizona! On one of the final legs of the North American tour, Michele Zauner, better known as, Japanese Breakfast performed hits from her latest album Jubilee and past albums Soft Sounds from Another Planet, Psychopomp, and the video game she scored, Sable.
Starting the night off with the opening track from jer latest album, Jubilee. Paprika is a welcoming opening number that has Japanese Breakfast exploring what it is like to stand in front of crowds every night and have them sing your lyrics back to you. In the song, I think Zauner explains the feeling very well singing, “Oh, it's a rush. Oh, It's a rush” and what a rush it is to watch Japanese Breakfast take a stage and open a show! The next song was the popular and one of our favorite songs of the entire album, Be Sweet! Be Sweet, starts out with a thumping bass line that sent the Congress crowd into a dance frenzy! Throughout the song, you could hear the crowd singing along with the band and even taking the lead at one point. The band played a few more off their newest album before playing a song from one of Zauner’s side projects, Bumper. Bumper is made up of Zauner and her friend/neighbor, Ryan Galloway. Playing, Ballad 0, off of the debut Bumper EP, pop songs 2020. This song has a gorgeous sound and feel to it and despite being a completely different project of Zauner’s, this track still fits seamlessly into the Japanese Breakfast set!
No Japanese Breakfast set is complete, in our opinion, without a few of the classics! Playing, Boyish, off of the 2017 album, Soft Sounds from Another Planet. The Club Congress crowd was instantly sucked into the sway of the song and sang along with Zauner as the stage lights glistened on the Club Congress patio stage! The crowd became absolutely infatuated when Zauner’s bandmate and husband, Peter Bradley, crooned a perfect guitar solo at the end of the song. Staying with the classics and closing out the night was the band’s hit song from their 2016 album, Psychopomp, Everybody Wants to Love You. Drowning the plaza in rainbow lights accompanied by guitar licks and shimmering synths Zauner, the rest of Japnese Breakfast, and the entirety of the Congress plaza dance and enjoyed the last few moments with the band! Well, so they thought...after the conclusion of the show the crowd hung around in hopes of just one more song. They wanted the encore and an encore is what they got! A single spotlight turns on with Zauner coming out with just herself and a guitar. A fog is illuminated by the spotlight as it surrounds Zauner in a cloud and she begins to sing, Posing For Cars. Next to join on stage is her husband, Peter Bradley picking up an acoustic to chime in. Not long after the rest of the band follows and the full encore is underway. It is a short but very intimate feeling with two songs to end the night. By the time it ended, you could feel a sense of community and comfort that took over the crowd.
We knew that this show was going to be something special because of our preview of it at Treefort Festival, but to experience the songs, not in a festival setting, but on the tour, they were intended to be played on was truly something we will remember! It was such a pleasure to have Japanese Breakfast make a stop in Tucson as we are usually a city that gets bypassed for Phoenix! We can’t wait for the next JBrekkie show and while we wait will be enjoying this album!