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Amid billowing fog, a giant pink clam sat center stage as Michelle Zauner of Japanese Breakfast emerged like a vision from Botticelli’s “The Birth of Venus” — perched gracefully within and guitar in hand. It was an image of surreal beauty. She opened with ‘Here Is Someone,’ a track from Japanese Breakfast’s latest album, “For Melancholy Brunettes (& Sad Women).”
On May 7 at MGM Music Hall, Japanese Breakfast stopped in Boston on their U.S. tour, delivering existential angst to every sad woman in the city. As large as the venue may be — with both the first and second balconies nearly full — Zauner and her band crafted an intimate atmosphere that made the vast space feel smaller, drawing the crowd closer to both the music and to one another.
Before Japanese Breakfast entered the stage, the opening band Ginger Root, self described as “aggressive elevator soul,” truly brought energy to the show — a nice juxtaposition to the sadness that was to come. With danceable beats and undeniable charm, Ginger Root had the crowd moving from the first song.
Lead singer Cameron Lew brought more than just music to the stage — he infused the performance with a distinctive visual style rooted in his background as a filmmaker and multimedia artist. With self-produced, Japanese ’80s-inspired music videos playing behind the band and a live cameraman capturing real-time footage, the set was transformed into a fully immersive experience. It wasn’t just the music; it was the full audiovisual experience that made Ginger Root such a captivating and memorable opener.
The second song “Orlando in Love” functioned as an early narrative anchor, introducing the themes of longing and reflection that would recur throughout the night. The stage set brought to life the vivid imagery Zauner creates in her music — “As if the sea had borne her to be an ideal woman. She came to him from the water like Venus from a shell,” to borrow from the lyrics of “Orlando in Love.” And there, on stage, Zauner was the “ideal woman” she had sung into existence.
Despite the often melancholic themes in her music, Zauner brought a sense of whimsy and vitality to the stage. During more upbeat tracks like “Honey Water” and “Slide Tackle,” she skipped across the stage, leapt into the air, and rocked her head with abandon. Her movement felt like a joyful exhale — as if she were shaking off the very pain her lyrics confront. That energy radiated into the crowd, who responded in dancing, thrashing, and singing along. The joy she brought to the performance was infectious, turning shared sadness into something celebratory.
The stage lighting brought a rich, theatrical layer to the concert, amplifying the emotion and narrative of each song. During “Posing in Bondage,” Zauner stood motionless at center stage as sharp white beams flickered around her in a trance-like rhythm, mirroring the track’s pulsing melody. Throughout the set, the stage glowed in dusky pinks, deep blues, and muted purples — tones that created a dreamlike twilight. When the mood lifted, so did the lighting; bursts of warm gold pierced the haze, casting the stage in sunlight-like beams that energized the space. More than mere atmosphere, the lighting acted as a visual extension of the music’s emotional arc.
The lantern appeared to be a central motif in the story Zauner wove throughout the performance. Positioned in front of the clam, it shimmered in sync with the lighting, adding a quiet, symbolic presence to the stage. At one point, Zauner raised it toward the crowd like a sailor lost at sea, searching for answers. Its meaning remained open, but it hinted at key themes in “For Melancholy Brunettes (& Sad Women)” — longing, a search for connection, and a mythologizing of women in love and loss.
Japanese Breakfast’s dream pop aesthetic is defined by its often subdued melodic lines and Zauner’s soft, airy vocals. While this delicate vocal style is deeply emotive and intimate on record, it occasionally felt overwhelming in the vastness of a large concert venue, where the subtleties of her voice sometimes got lost in the mix.
The transitions between songs were also notably abrupt; Zauner moved quickly from one track to the next with minimal pauses or interaction with the audience. While this created a continuous, almost seamless flow, it also made the performance feel at times rushed and emotionally distant. Songs bled into each other with few distinguishing breaks, which made it difficult to fully absorb each individual moment. The lack of pacing and engagement occasionally undercut the otherwise rich atmosphere the band worked to create.
Japanese Breakfast closed the night with an encore of “Be Sweet,”“Paprika," and “Diving Woman” — fan favorites from their standout albums. Zauner returned to the mouth of the clam shell for the finale, jumping with infectious energy and shouting into the crowd with a raw, almost angelic intensity. The audience was left breathless, caught in the overwhelming emotion of the moment as it hung in the air long after the last note.
—Staff writer LeMonie K. Hutt can be reached at lemonie.hutt@thecrimson.com.
