Japanese Breakfast at Brixton Academy

Japanese Breakfast

Minhwi Lee

Brixton Academy, 3 July 2025

I've been intrigued to see Japanese Breakfast for a long time, partly due to a recommendation by a friend years ago and partly because I loved frontwoman Michelle Zauner's brilliant memoir Crying In H Mart. I must admit I was slightly reluctant though when they announced this date because it was at the far from intimate Brixton Academy for one thing and also because I had a feeling the demographic for Japanese Breakfast would be far younger and more obsessive than me (a la Mitski or Phoebe Bridgers, the latter of which I was lucky enough to catch before she became a teen girl dream). But knowing I had no gigs lined up for a while, I said, what the hell, and took the plunge, and bought a last minute ticket.

When I arrived I had to queue and indeed I felt like one of the oldest people there but when I got inside I was relieved to see it wasn't only teens and 20-somethings. Still this was a world away from the Tift Merritt gig and I can't deny I wasn't as comfortable at this show, but of course that is completely down to me. I did appreciate though that there was a guy next to me at the barrier, obviously by himself too, reading a book before the show started, which is something I sometimes do too, so there were a few kindred spirits it seems.

I hadn't heard of the support act Minhwi Lee but I suspected that she may be a fellow South Korean artist (Zauner is American of course but was born in South Korea) and I was right.  She arrived on stage, sitting behind her keyboard, with her hair tied back, wearing a simple ensemble of black sleeveless top and trousers, accompanied by a mysterious long-haired, baseball cap-wearing guitarist. At first I wasn't sure which one was Minhwi Lee as the pair launched into an instrumental track and I couldn't see her guitarist very well, but she began singing by the second song and even charmingly introducing the songs, and it was clear who was the star of the show. 

The music itself was overall quite slow and sad-sounding, with a traditional edge, but almost easy-listening too. For some reason it reminded me at times of Francoise Hardy in the 70s when her music became more middle of the road. It was certainly charming but it would definitely have gone down better in a smaller more intimate venue. There was a lot of talking during her set, sometimes it was almost louder than the music. Fortunately, as I was at the front I could still hear her fine but anywhere else, I'm not sure I would have. 

For the final song, Lee actually stopped the song and asked if people could stop talking as it was her last track and it was very quiet, and briefly the audience, maybe in shock when she stopped so suddenly, did stop talking but gradually they all started again. It was incredibly disrespectful and I really don't understand why people can't stop their conversations while the bands are playing. It did not endear me to Japanese Breakfast's London audience anyway. 

Thankfully there was no chatter for the main act, obviously because it was who we were all here to see but also the music was a lot more noisy, making conversation a lot more difficult, hurrah! There was a lot of excitement as the band took to the stage particularly when we all spotted Zauner (carrying a lantern that she placed at the front of the stage), who is absolutely tiny but was wearing a striking white lacy dress (that kind of looked like it was made from bunched up curtains) and matching hat, that may have been a big bow but looked more like floppy bunny ears. This hat did not last through the first song - Here Is Someone from the new record For Melancholy Brunettes (& Sad Woman) - falling to the floor as Zauner jumped around.

I was actually pleasantly surprised at how rocking it was, with Zauner actually completely shredding on the guitar at times on the beautifully noisy Honey Water, balancing it with the dreamy pop of Orlando In Love, the first single from the new record.

She tells us that the tour didn't get off to a good start when their bus broke down in Sweden and they were hoping things would go better tonight, before crash, bang and wallop sounds introduce the next song. I'm happy to say, things went pretty smoothly for the whole show!

The majority of the songs of course came from the new album, but older fans had nothing to complain about as they also played a good chunk from both Jubilee and Soft Sounds From Another Planet (only one from their debut Psychopomp though), and it was nice to see a lot of people singing along to the songs.

Near the end, Zauner introduced they would be playing a new song, the just released My Baby (Got Nothing At All) from the soundtrack of the new movie The Materialists, a very catchy number that went down really well with the crowd. They also played a request of an older song, Till Death, for a more melancholy moment.

It was definitely a full band: along with the usual drums, bass, guitar and keyboards, she also had someone playing violin and even saxophone. Zauner herself switched between playing either acoustic or electric guitar or dancing around the stage sans instrument, bouncing from one end of the stage to the other, or even sitting at the edge of the stage for one song, while another she moved to the back of the stage to sit with the keyboard player. She was equally mesmerising though with a guitar as she was jumping around and I admit, my eyes were pretty much always on her despite all the musicians on the stage.

The most fun moments probably came with the encore, when she performed one of Japanese Breakfast's most popular songs, Paprika, banging away at the large crashing cymbal throughout the song.  While Be Sweet with it's disco beat provided a brilliant high energy moment near the end, before bringing back the rock, with the more riff-driven Diving Woman, and providing a rousing finish to the show.

It was a good, very polished show but I did love the most noisy, free-styling moments the best and it did kind of make me regret I didn't see them early on when they were playing smaller and probably rawer shows. But there's no doubt that Japanese Breakfast is a great band and that Zauner is a fabulous frontwoman and they absolutely deserve their success and to play bigger venues like Brixton Academy. I did feel a bit of a fraud being there though, but it was still nice to finally see them live.