It’s safe to say the last year and a half has been filled with so much trauma, we could all use a little Jubilee right now. Lucky for us, that’s exactly what Japanese Breakfast and Luna Li brought to Brooklyn Bowl last Tuesday.
Kicking off the show, Toronto band Luna Li made their Vegas debut opening with “ABNL.” Written during the pandemic and featuring sparse, repeating lyrics of “alone by not lonely,” the upbeat instrumental song was perfect to sum up the crowds’ frustrations and explode in a wave of dancing from the outset.
Jumping around in a shiny silver tracksuit, Luna perfectly embodied the moon fairy she so often inhabits.
With training as a classical musician Luna mixes piano, harp, and violin with strong guitar and drum beats. To honor that training, Luna recently released the instrumental Jams ep, and on this evening played songs like “Flower” and “Float”. During a live loop, the crowd was invited to, “close your eyes and float away with me,” while we all swayed to the dreamy, ethereal-ness of the night.
Wrapping up “After Glow” on the most adorable butterfly shaped guitar, Luna shared a story about needing to leave early while recording the song to get to a Japanese Breakfast show. She spoke about how it was the first time that she had seen someone who looked like her on stage (Luna Li and Michelle Zauner are both Korean). She emphasized how vital it is to have representation and how she was freaking out to be on tour with Japanese Breakfast, before closing the set with fan favorite “Cherry Pit”.
Japanese Breakfast started as front-woman Michelle Zauner’s solo project, back in 2013 when she was living with her family in Portland, after her mother had been diagnosed with cancer. Given the circumstances the first album Psychopomp is laced with more melancholy lyrics then the bands third full length album Jubilee. Their set started off strong with “Paprika” and “Be Sweet to Me”, the first two tracks off the new album. It was clear this was a celebration, once Zauner (dressed in a gorgeous boho white wedding-esque dress) began dancing and jumping around the stage as fans sang along to the newly released songs.
It’s true, Zauner has a lot to be celebrating. Right before dropping Jubilee in June, Zauner became a bestselling author for her memoir Crying in H Mart (I cried throughout the entire book. It’s fantastic! I’ll put it on hold for you.) and has just finished the soundtrack for the video game Sable.
While the set contained favorites from the first two albums like “In Heaven”, “The Woman Who Loves You”, and “Road Head”, fans also got to hear “Boyish” from Zauner’s previous band Little Big League. Despite the fact that Jubilee is essentially an album about joy, Zauner made sure to point out the secret sad song off the new album (did you find it?). Japanese Breakfast closed out the set with “Everybody Wants To Love You” before an encore of “Posing for Cars” and “Diving Woman”, leaving the crowd with a much-needed feeling of catharsis and togetherness, if only for the evening.
-Kristy Calhoun
Photos by Hunter Wallace:
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