Michelle Zauner, the woman that you are! I got the chance to see her in Detroit last weekend at the Fillmore, and perhaps it would be dramatic to call the concert life-changing… but I truly can’t think of a better word to describe it. Her fourth headlining tour for her first studio album, The Melancholy Tour is a treat like none other for both longtime fans, first-time listeners, and anyone who can enjoy some modern indie rock. I don’t think this can come as a surprise, as the album was just as phenomenal as the last three, although it definitely had a different tone. For anyone new just tuning in, Michelle Zauner’s Japanese Breakfast is known for her deeply personal, emotional projects. Although her songwriting is exceptional (and her band even more so), what really stands out to me is the lyrics and their relevance somehow both to the specifics of her life and to anyone listening. Her lyrics mostly revolve around her relationship with grief and time passing, especially as she lost her mother to cancer, and a disconnect from her motherland culture in Korea and growing up in America without learning to speak Korean. Not exactly the most broad topic, applicable directly to very few, but many listeners, and myself included, still find solace in her almost-magical way with words. Psychopomp, her first album, was written after her mother’s cancer diagnoses (and is my personal favorite album). Soft Sounds from Another Planet was written after her mother’s passing, as was Crying In H-Mart, her bestselling memoir (with a sequel on the way?!). Jubilee, the album that really made a splash in the industry and shot her to fame, was about finding joy despite and even within all the pain of life and loss. And now, her most recent album, For Melancholy Brunettes (and Sad Women) is, as the title would suggest, a sort of antithesis to Jubilee. Sorrow is beautiful, and inevitable. I truly enjoyed the album’s release and I can’t say I was disappointed in any capacity. It has a very different sound to it, but her voice is consistent through all her projects, both literally in her singing and in her lyrics. My personal favorites are “Mega Circuit” and “Honey Water,” both of which she included in her performance on The Melancholy Tour.
As for the actual performance, I really enjoyed her quite large selection of songs. I was pleasantly surprised with the amount of songs she had from her past albums, including two from her first solo album, Psychopomp, when I only expected one based on setlists from Spotify (cheating? I don’t think so). The Fillmore was gorgeous, of course, the set was pretty, and the lights were outstanding and really complemented the performance. Zauner was, of course, the star of the show, killing it on the guitar and the keyboard, switching effortlessly between her serenades where she sat perched on her giant oyster, or bouncing around the stage to songs that I was bawling my eyes out to. The highlight of the show was, for me, her vocals on “Posing in Bondage” – in the official release, the end of the song sounds like the background vocals brought to the forefront, so I assumed that part would just be another press of her keyboard like the first half of the song, but she actually sang, and killed it in a rare Zauner non-lyrical vocal moment. I would give anything to live in that moment for the rest of time, or at least the following week – she can seem like she’s trying to distract you with her heavy, clever lyrics, but don’t let anyone tell you she doesn’t have the voice to back it up. I will say, she was a surprisingly non-chatty performer. She never really spoke to the audience more than a sentence or two here and there in between songs, but when she did she had all the confidence and charm of a seasoned performer. I definitely would’ve enjoyed hearing her speak more just because I’m a fan, but I do appreciate the sort of unspoken message that came along with her brevity. Everything she had to say, she was singing about.