Japanese Breakfast - Live in Salt Lake City
Every summer in Salt Lake City, Utah, S&S Presents puts on The Salt Lake Twilight Concert Series. This year the people of Salt Lake had an incredible lineup of Earthgang, Sierra Ferrell, Waxahatchee, Mt Joy, Big Thief, and the incredible Japanese Breakfast. We at Purple Haze were thrilled to be able to provide coverage for the sold-out Japanese Breakfast show at The Gallivan Center in downtown Salt Lake City on September 5, 2025.
As I arrived at The Gallivan Center at 6pm for the gate openings, the lines were long and full of energy as excited fans waited for their turn to enter the venue. From the very beginning the crowds were bustling, running to get merch or secure a prime spot for the show. Only about a half hour after the gates opened, the first act of the night, a band called Tomper, started the show. Tomper is a band local to Utah. The band consisted of 7 talented musicians (including Tom and Piper, the band’s namesakes) who were full of life and energy. I think this set was a fun way to start the show, with groovy tunes and some awesome brass solos that got the crowd hungry for more.
The second performer of the night was the artist Ginger Root. Ginger Root is created by Cameron Lew, an insanely talented multi-instrumentalist. Lew has self-described his music as "aggressive elevator soul” which may be my favorite genre of music. Playing some of their most popular hits such as Loretta, Karaoke, and Over the Hill, the fans throughout the crowd were having an absolute blast. During their set Ginger Root has a camera man running around the stage and highlighting the musicians on stage and how they play their instruments. It truly is both an auditory and visual treat to experience. I think that Ginger Root is just so engaging and fun to see live with all of the elements they add to their performance and they are a band I wouldn’t want to miss next time they are in town.
Around 8:30pm, our headliner of the evening, Japanese Breakfast took the stage. Front-woman Michelle Zauner ran to the front of the stage to light a lantern for the crowd, once loud and now silent with anticipation. Zauner then took her lantern and took a seat in a giant clam shell and played Here is Someone. It was such a beautiful and engaging way to begin what was sure to be an incredible set. The next two songs built in intensity with Orlando in Love and Honey Water, these first three songs are also the first three songs on the band's latest album For Melancholy Brunettes (& sad women). Though the set was heavy on the new album, they also played a lot of their older stuff which was a treat for the fans in the crowd, as well as their song My Baby (Got Nothing at All) from The Materialist. While the set was a little more on the slower side tempo-wise, it was such an incredible show and people who were truly there for the music loved every second of it. Japanese Breakfast came back out for their encore and played crowd favorites such as Paprika, which some fans endearingly call “the gong song,” and Be Sweet. Overall it was a performance that anyone lucky enough to attend the sold-out show was ecstatic about.
Every performer that played at the Japanese Breakfast show at The Twilight Concert Series in Salt Lake City, Utah, was so amazing and inspiring. This was such a surreal experience as someone who has enjoyed Japanese Breakfast for a long time. I think that even if you weren’t familiar with the band’s work, if you were someone who enjoyed good music, you would absolutely enjoy a Japanese Breakfast show.