Japanese Breakfast
Manchester Academy
29th June 2025
Korean-American musician Michelle Zauner, aka Japanese Breakfast, brought her distinctive mix of indie pop and subtle brilliance to Manchester Academy as part of her Melancholy Tour. She delivered a sharp, well-paced set that moved effortlessly between shimmering synth-driven highs and more introspective moments.
You would sometimes be forgiven for forgetting that, first and foremost, Michelle Zauner is a songwriter; one of the finest of her generation. She epitomises the modern-day multi-hyphenate, as a New York Times-bestselling author; her memoir Crying in H Mart was a huge hit in 2021, and as a soundtracker, having scored the video game Sable that same year. Primarily, though, she effectively is Japanese Breakfast, a mercurial indie pop outfit whose latest record, For Melancholy Brunettes and Sad Women, met with universal acclaim upon release back in March.
Said critical rapture has not quite translated into top-tier commercial success, as evidenced by the fact that the 2500-capacity Academy is perhaps half-full at best tonight. That might be for the best, though; it’s an intimate record that benefits, live, from being performed in what feels like an intimate environment. The audience are rapt through songs that are quiet and intricate by design; Orlando in Love is a case in point, as is Mega Circuit.
Then, there are moments where the rockier Japanese Breakfast of old come alive; the grungy back half of Honey Water is a case in point, as are older tracks like Boyish and The Body Is a Blade. It’s a set that feels genuinely triumphant; just a day earlier, Zauner and the band finally made their debut at Glastonbury after being forced to miss the festival in 2023 because of travel issues. They carry that winning energy into tonight’s show, particularly on a brilliantly expressive Men in Bars, a breezy Kokomo, IN, and, to close the main set, a take on Posing in Bondage that crackles with energy.
Anton Chekhov used to have a rule that if a gun is hung on the wall or a stage set during act one of a play, it’ll surely have been fired by the end of act three. It’s impossible to miss the gong that’s centre stage tonight and, by the time she returns for a richly deserved encore, Zauner finally hits it during an extended, brilliantly unpredictable take on Paprika; what is an indie pop song on record becomes a sprawling, undefinable behemoth live. A long, euphoric version of Be Sweet follows, it’s an exercise in synthy, dance-inflected indie pop song- before Zauner signs off with Diving Woman, which when presented live seems to encompass every aspect of the Japanese Breakfast experience – hooks, melody and lyrical earnestness are all present and correct, and in abundance. She’s reinventing indie pop before our eyes.
Please note: Use of these images in any form without permission is illegal. If you wish to contact the photographer, please email: mel@mudkissphotography.co.uk
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You can find Japanese Breakfast on their website as well as Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.
Words by Joe Goggins: find him on X here
All photos by Melanie Smith – Louder Than War | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | Portfolio
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