Japanese Breakfast and Melancholy Brunettes

Are you a Melancholic, Brunette, or just a sad woman? Go see Japanese Breakfast on tour for their new album, Melancholy Brunettes and Sad Women to dance, swim in tears and experience the whimsy of a fellow melancholic brunette, the lead vocalist Michelle Zauner. I know I am, let me tell you about my experience on September 2, 2025 at Woodland Park Zoo to see one of my favorite bands of all time, Japanese Breakfast.

Walking into Woodland Park Zoo a sea of people approached my gaze from behind the entrance. Everyone was sitting in the grass, awaiting Ginger Root to head onto the stage to play some funky tunes. Children scurried around the park eagerly waiting for the performance as their parents basked in the sun. As for my colleague and friend Brenden, we ventured to the front of the venue to the barricade section. Brenden was all-ready with his camera and I kept a visual log of everything I saw for the evening. And let me tell you, I had one of the best nights of my life. I have been a major fan of Japanese Breakfast since 2022 after their album Jubilee was released in 2021. I was already prepared for the concert with a t-shirt from her previous album Soft Sounds from Another Planet inspired by the song “Diving Woman.” Japanese Breakfast and Ginger Root are one of the best concert duos I have ever seen. Sometimes, when I attend a concert, I am usually there for the opener or the main event. But this time I lucked out and knew both of the artists previously attending the show.

Ginger Root, the genre-blending project of Cameron Lew, continues to captivate audiences with his signature fusion of Aggressive Elevator Music, as Lew likes to call it, Japanese city pop, and indie soul. His live performances are a charismatic blend of charm, quirk, and irresistible grooves that make it nearly impossible not to move. Beyond just the sound, Ginger Root delivers a fully immersive experience,  a masterclass in audiovisual storytelling.

Lew’s passion radiates through every element of the performance. His creativity isn’t limited to music; it spills into a thoughtful and cohesive multimedia presentation. On stage, a videographer captures the action in real-time, projecting a live feed through a vintage TV, reinforcing the nostalgic yet futuristic aesthetic that defines Ginger Root. Lew alternates between singing into a standard mic and using a red rotary phone, a recurring motif in his visual and sonic branding. It’s clear that Ginger Root isn’t just a band, it’s a fully realized art project, and Lew is at the center of it, pulling every string with intention and heart.

Ginger Root closed their set with a moment of heartfelt storytelling from frontman Cameron Lew. Reflecting on the early days of the project, he shared a memory from college, a time when he drove to Austin during SXSW only to perform at an empty bar which then to an evening of playing pool with his band and the employees of the bar. Lew wrote a school essay the same night about Psychopomp, the debut album by Japanese Breakfast, the very artist they now shared a tour with. “If there’s something you want to do, you’re going to fail,” Lew told the crowd. “But that’s okay. Because one day, you too might tour with Japanese Breakfast.” This story by Lew really resonated with me as a recent college graduate, no matter where you’re at in life, you will be okay. As long as you have the passion and the will to cultivate what the world throws at you, success will come your way.

That story led into their final number, “Show Ten,” which turned out to be the highlight of the performance. The song exploded into a genre-bending display of showmanship; Talking Heads-style funk guitar riffs, extended disco grooves, looped vocal screams, and even a full-blown boogie-woogie 12-bar blues breakdown. Have you ever felt so immersed in someone else’s that you lose track of time? That is what happened to me, right at the barricade I felt every belt of Lew’s iconic vocal range echo through Woodland Park Zoo. The way all of the band members thrive off of each other’s musical talent is beside me, I was in genuine awe of the pure talent and captivity of Ginger Root and their passion to perform. They are one of the most original indie bands in 2025. Lew worked the stage until the very last second of the performance, with James Brown-inspired “Hit me!” shouts before closing the set by telling the crowd to participate in unison: “Hit me 14 times and we’re out.” The band delivered 14 precise bursts of sound, and then silence…

Quickly after Ginger Root left, the road crew put together the Japanese Breakfast set which was all a sea theme. The set was designed by the multi-talented Kat Borderud, who created a giant seashell for Michelle Zauner to sit in. It included motifs of art deco ocean waves, lanterns and smoke machines which set the atmosphere. It was inspired by Zauner’s song from her new album For Melancholy Brunettes and Sad Women, “Orlando in Love.” Furthermore, Zauner’s song was based off of the infamous painting The Birth of Venus. Japanese Breakfast’s album is inspired by 17-th century Dutch vanitas painting. Zauner truly captures the essence of the melancholy and gothic look from these paintings, she includes a sea theme with mermaids and sailors. Her outfit for the evening was resembling a high-fashion fishnet, flowing with her every move of the evening. Night two in Seattle she wore a red sailor outfit to represent the sea theme even more. Zauner is a notorious storyteller, not just from her lyrics, but her capability to bring her lyrics to life through outfits, whimsical music videos, or set-design.

The band members came out from behind the stage Michelle Zauner (Vocals), Craig Hendrix, Peter Bradley, Deven Craige (Bass), Adam Schatz, Lauren Baba and sat in their positions to start the show. Japanese Breakfast’s first song on her new album, “Here is Someone” is my favorite song off the album. It is music genius, Zauner’s raw vocals paired with the burst of beautifully layered instruments is one of the most beautiful things I’ve ever heard. This was the first song she played in the venue, tears started streaming down my face as the band started to play in unison. Her music feels like home, the loss and grief of life; and our constant joy we feel in the little things. In her previous band, Little Big League, they created a mid-west emo/ indie-rock feel. Japanese Breakfast maintains the indie genre while adding an alternative whimsical feeling. If you are getting into Zauner’s work, start with groundbreaking Jubilee and make your way to For Melancholy Brunettes and Sad Women. Psychopomp is her debut album and is very core to her aesthetic and genre of music. While she was taking care of her mother, she wrote her bestselling book Crying in H-Mart. Zauner wrote about her mother Chongmi, about her grief and the complex relationship Zauner had with her. It explores how food, specifically food from her culture helped her reconnect with her heritage and process loss. Chongmi was lost to pancreatic cancer, my Tutu (grandma), was lost to the same disease in 2022. I discovered Zauner’s music the same time as I was going through the immense grief of my Tutu, her music saved me and something to resonate with. Japanese Breakfast is very special to me, and it was even more being 6 feet away from her singing in concert.

Zauner took to her feet for the next number, still playing her favored black Gibson acoustic guitar, as “Orlando in Love” began, the second track from Brunettes, performed in the same order as on the original album. Midway through the third stanza, she sang the line that nodded to the stage design, “She came to him from the water like Venus from a shell.” Next came “Honey Water,” making it three for three in the album’s original sequence. Her cream-colored tortoiseshell pickguard shimmered under the lights, and her 1960s Fender Jazzmaster howled with feedback as she sculpted the sound into melody using only the tips of her fingers. She then sang “Road Head” which is one of the first few songs that got me into her music, other than “Be Sweet” off of her album Jubilee. She played at least one song off of every album, including “Boyish,” from her first band Little Big League. Zauner then begins to interact with the crowd and appreciate the age variety in the crowd. There was a group of little girls in front of the barricade staring in awe at every movement of Zauner, she then began to interact with them by waving and dancing with them. She even mentioned in the show she hopes her younger fans come back to see her in 10 years. Zauner cultivated the crowd with her talented guitar skills, when she wasn’t holding her guitar; she was bouncing around the stage as the crowd’s eyes fixed on her every movement.

Before Japanese Breakfast started the encore, they ended the first set with one of their most iconic songs… at least to me. “Posing in Bondage” starts off very slow and melancholic, then builds into an explosion of guitar and emotion; I truly felt every belt and guitar strum that night. One of my all-time favorite lyrics is from this song and resonates with me very deeply, “When the world divides into two people, those who have felt pain and those who have yet to. And I can’t unsee it, although I would like to.” Another instrument was brought out to accompany the encore, I won’t say which one… you’ll have to find out when you attend this show (which you should definitely do).

To end the show, the encore, she started with “Paprika,” then “Posing for Cars,” both off of Jubilee and another favorite of mine, “Diving Woman.” Previously I was mentioning my shirt based off of this song. Zauner pointed at my shirt during the show and complimented it; I couldn’t believe it! Her passion for performing and playing with her talented band is incredible, but nothing outshines the way she interacts and appreciates all of her fans in the crowd. The amount of pure joy that was in the venue was beautiful, life has been hard as of recent, even if it is individual struggles or hardships with the world, and from my experience, the room was only full of music and pure bliss for an evening… the world fell behind me as I was immersed in this world For Melancholy Brunettes and Sad Women.

Words: Zoey Ryan

Photos: Brenden Fuller