Live music review: Japanese Breakfast and Dehd sold-out ACL Festival Late Night show

Last Saturday, indie-pop act Japanese Breakfast played a sold-out Stubb’s BBQ with Dehd, a rising three-piece indie-rock outfit from Chicago. The performance was an official Austin City Limits Music Festival (ACL Festival) Late Night show.

“Lucky to have people in my life with the power to break my heart,” I’ve said it once and I will say it again. Dehd opened with their verse of resounding gratitude. Several months prior, I had been fortunate to see Dehd at Antone’s. The trio has already graduated to taking the stage at Stubb’s. The crowd was mixed: a good number were there to see Japanese Breakfast and many there to see Dehd. The guy behind me had caught the trio from Chicago playing out of the back of a truck.

The audience sang along to the jubilant anthem Dehd led off with, “Flood.”. The band moved into “Haha”,  with bandmates Emily Kampf and Eric McGrady talking through an on-again, off-again relationship, punctuated with “ahaha ahhhaaa”s. Kampf stalled between songs, joking with the audience as McGrady tuned his guitar. “Alright, on the count of three, we’re all going to whistle. If you can’t whistle make whoo-ing sound. We’ve done it before and it sounds really horrible.”

With the track “Bad Love”, everyone was dancing. McGrady’s guitar glowed bright, neon green underneath the klieg lights. Drummer Jason Balla did his thing at the back of the stage with zeal. For their final track, “Flying”, Kampf left it all on the stage with an energetic finale.

Japanese Breakfast is touring in support of their third LP, Jubilee. The album was nominated for a Grammy award for Best Alternative Music Album and the band was nominated for Best New Artist in 2021. Riding high on their success, front woman Michele Zauner’s book “Crying in H Mart” has also become a surprise nationwide bestseller, sitting on the New York Times bestseller list for over 40 weeks. At 33, Zauner has improbably become both an indie-rock and literary star simultaneously.

Japanese Breakfast opened with “Paprika”, with Zauner striking a gong parked center stage during the chorus. The singer exuded an effortless coolness that cannot and will not be imitated easily in a black bralette draped in a medallion necklace. The crowd went wild for the saxophonist’s piece in the arrangement. 

“Be Sweet” flooded the stage with blue and purple lights. Zauner’s voice sounded just as true to the track live as it does on the recording. “Make it up to me, you know it’s better,” she jumped towards the crowd, extending her hands out to the crowd. “Be sweet to me baby, I want to believe in you, I want to believe in something,” her voice was as saccharine as honey. The audience sang along in unison to the verses.

The high pitched guitar notes of “Everybody Wants to Love You” hit all the spectators signaling an upbeat track. Zauner took up her electric guitar. The lights flashed rainbow colors behind them as they rocked out. “We wrote this song about a place we’ve never been to.” “Kokomo, IN” was introduced next, showcasing the violinist’s part. 

Japanese Breakfast directly tackles societal norms with “Savage Good Boy”, calling out traditional gender roles to become the breadwinner of their house. “I want to make the money until there is no more money to be made.” Japanese Breakfast’s wit and imagination in their songwriting has became one of their hallmarks. Zauner swoons over, not only protecting her lover, but also spoiling them, during apocalyptic times in the song.

The encore saw the best-selling author and musician took to center stage with her acoustic guitar for an intimate rendition of “Posing for Cars”. As the song progressed, her band mates trickled onto the stage to join her. Japanese Breakfast closed out the show with “Diving Women”, prompting the entire crowd and everyone on stage to jump together in unison.   

All photos by Michael Maly

Please follow and like us: