Courtesy of Pak Bae

American indie pop band Japanese Breakfast performed a whimsical fairytale set at the Santa Barbara Bowl on Aug. 23, 2025. 

Japanese Breakfast was formed as a side project by frontwoman, primary songwriter, guitarist and vocalist Michelle Zauner in 2013. Zauner’s original gig was fronting Philadelphia-based emo rock band Little Big League, but Japanese Breakfast became the main course in 2014 when Zauner moved back to Eugene, Oregon, to take care of her mother. 

It was in Eugene that the band was truly born, Zauner using music as a means of coping with her mother’s illness, creating songs that would eventually become 2016’s “Psychopomp.” Japanese Breakfast originally featured Peter Bradley, guitarist and husband to Zauner; Deven Craige on bass and Craig Hendrix on drums. In 2021, they added violinist Lauren Baba and saxophonist Adam Schatz to complete the band. 

Zauner is the multifaceted face of the project, but her talents extend beyond music. Her 2021 memoir, “Crying in H Mart,” spent over a year on the New York Times best sellers list. The book, a story of love, food and loss, captured Zauner’s struggle with her Korean American identity in the wake of her mother’s tragic passing. 

Audience members eagerly awaited for the concert to begin as a red light beamed from the stage. (Sharon Lee / Daily Nexus)

As fans trickled into the Bowl seating, the book’s bright red cover could be seen among the summer crowd, clutched by girls with sparkling silver nail polish and held in contrast with black leather vests and white tiered maxi skirts. Red seemed to be the color of the evening, with opener Ginger Root’s videographer David Gutel wearing a fire engine red jumpsuit, back emblazoned with a Ginger Root logo. 

Ginger Root is a multimedia project by California native Cameron Lew, featuring what Lew calls “aggressive elevator soul” music set to nostalgic 1980s and 1990s-inspired music videos. Lew is the sole mastermind of the project, from composing and recording the music to producing and starring in the videos. 

Ginger Root live features Lew and his longtime friends Matthew Carney on drums and Dylan Hovis on bass. Lew played various instruments on stage, including guitar and keyboard. But perhaps the most unconventional instrument was Gutel’s, a video camera he wielded as expertly as any guitar. Gutel moved the camera in time with the music, zooming in on Carney’s drumsticks and following Hovis’s fingers as they slid up and down the neck of his bass. Gutel pointed the camera into the crowd, putting audience members on the Ginger Root jumbotron. 

Ginger Root played an electric set, featuring songs from their 2024 album “SHINBANGUMI.” But perhaps the best moment was before Ginger Root’s final song of their set, the dreamy, rhythmic “Show 10,” when Lew took a moment to address the crowd. He describes the early days of Ginger Root in vivid detail, playing to no one in dive bars and writing college essays on the tour bus between cities.

“The essay topic was ‘Write about a piece of music that changed your life.’ And I chose to [write] it about ‘Psychopomp’ by Japanese Breakfast,” Lew said. “This last song, the lyrics are about me just telling myself, like, if you want to try something, try it, if you want to learn that language, if you want to learn how to draw, if you want to talk to that special someone, you’re going to fail. And that’s okay. It’s what you do after your mistakes that’ll maybe one day lead you to also opening for Japanese Breakfast,” he continued.

Lew and his companions waved goodbye to the crowd as smoke machines kicked into gear, the stage’s blue lights turning the floor to an ocean. A pink shell stood tall in the center of the stage, Zauner’s own personal “Birth of Venus” playground. Eventually the lights dimmed and Zauner trotted on stage in a red sailor outfit. The crowd murmured in excitement as the sound of a struck match played over the speakers, a small lantern blinking to light in Zauner’s hand. She turned, placing the lantern down on stage before picking up her guitar and sitting delicately on the edge of the shell.  

The rest of the band huddled around Zauner, a single orange spotlight shining down on them as “Here is Someone” began, the opening track of Japanese Breakfast’s 2025 album, “For Melancholy Brunettes (& sad women).” It’s the perfect beginning, an intimate moment between the crowd and the band before the lights came up, bathing the stage in pink and purple hues for the album’s lead single, “Orlando in Love.” 

Zauner stood at the helm of the stage, Craige and Bradley on either side of her as she sang the titular line, “For melancholy brunettes and sad women.” Fans cheered in response, white crowns (a reference to Zauner’s Coachella look) bobbing up and down in the crowd. Zauner welcomed the crowd to the show with a smile.

“Santa Barbara, you’re just going to blow [Los Angeles] out of the water aren’t you? … We have a great show planned for you toni —” Zauner trailed off as the lights flashed red behind her, “What was that?” she asked, searching the stage as the lights continued to flash red. The lights cut out for a second, before springing back to life in time with the opening chords of “Honey Water.”

The brooding track was followed by a trio of songs from the band’s second album, “Soft Sounds from Another Planet.” The tone of this album is almost guttural in feeling, viscous and dark. They played “Road Head,” “Boyish” and “The Body Is a Blade,” a musical triad of yearning that captured the album’s departure from the angry denialism of “Psychopomp.” The band followed the second album’s interlude with “Mega Circuit,” a song with sweet, honey vocals and pounding instrumentation. 

“Has anybody been to the movies lately?” Zauner asked, the crowd delighting in the question. Japanese Breakfast was featured on the original soundtrack for Celine Song’s 2025 film “Materialists,” and the song “My Baby (Got Nothing At All)” quickly became one of the band’s most streamed songs on Spotify. “It’s a love song about falling in love with people who have no money,” Zauner said. 

The song is bubbly and bright, Zauner bouncing across stage to each bandmate amidst pink smoke. They followed the song with the effervescent “Heft,” a “Psychopomp” favorite with a melodious riff in place of a chorus. The next song sent Zauner to the left corner of the stage, where a neon motel sign reading “Melancholy Inn” flickered to life. She leaned against the piano, where Schatz played the introduction to “Men in Bars,” lifting what appeared to be a glass of wine to the crowd.  

Zauner returned center stage for “Picture Window,” but not before a minute technical issue in which Zauner’s guitar wasn’t on. She called out for “Kyle,” the audience echoing her cries as a member of the crew (presumably Kyle) ran on stage. “Give it up for Kyle!” Zauner said through a laugh. 

The next song, “Slide Tackle” was the first from 2021’s “Jubilee,” an album that propelled the band into the mainstream with its upbeat tunes and Zauner’s signature vocals. Zauner caught a white crown from the crowd, placing it on Craige’s head from behind. They followed the track with “In Heaven,” an existential “Psychopomp” track that spotlighted Schatz on the saxophone and Baba on the violin. 

Zauner ventured to the barricade before “The Woman That Loves You,” grabbing a stuffed dog from the outstretched hand of an audience member. She sang passionately to the dog in her palms, “Then you leave me in the back / With half a window rolled down like a dog / Like a dog in the summer heat.”

Next came “Winter in LA,” Zauner twirling along to its pleasant melodies despite the melancholic writing, “I wish you had a happier woman.” They followed with another track from “Jubilee,” “Kokomo, IN.” This song was a clear crowd favorite, with fans from all sides of the stadium singing along to the sickeningly sweet lyrics, “You know that I’ll be here always.” 

There’s an onstage chemistry between Zauner and Bradley that resembles that of Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham, eyes finding each other as they sing songs written about their relationship. However, in Zauner and Bradley’s case, there is an undercurrent of steady, gentle love — the antithesis of the Nicks-Buckingham resentment and anger. Zauner took the time to introduce each of her bandmates, saving husband Bradley for last. Members of the crowd began chanting, “Peter, Peter, Peter!”

“Oh my god, don’t encourage him!” Zauner replied, before launching into “Magic Mountain.” The song was played as a duet between Zauner and Bradley, the two sharing the spotlight before the final song, “Posing in Bondage.” 

Green light flooded the stage, flickering on and off as Zauner laid in the center of the shell, reaching up and out to the audience, the song building and breaking as the crowd roared in approval. It was the perfect decoy finale, a seeming end to what had been a magnificent set. The band waved goodbye, and the lights went dark despite the audience’s cries. But slowly, a gong wreathed in flowers was rolled out to center stage. 

Zauner returned solo, this time in her very own white crown, beginning the encore with the poetic “Posing for Cars.” The band came out for the jubilant “Paprika” which had Zauner center stage, commanding the gong like a military general. “Be Sweet,” the song that is far and away the band’s most popular, had the crowd on their feet dancing to the song’s addictive melodies. They ended the show with the epic “Diving Woman,” an intense and lifting song, a true finale to an incredible night of music and showmanship. 

The show was pure magic, Zauner flitting about the stage like a mythical sprite in her white crown, waving goodbye to the Santa Barbara Bowl as if she had never been. Like Venus, rising from the Central Coast sea foam and into the clouds.