Japanese Breakfast is scheduled to perform at the Masonic on Wednesday-Thursday, Aug. 27-28. Photo: Emma McIntyre / Getty Images for Coachella
Japanese Breakfast started as a side project. Now, the band is a Grammy-nominated indie rock sensation.
Frontwoman Michelle Zauner formed the band in 2013 while she was focusing on her other band, Little Big League. She returned home to Eugene, Ore., in 2014 to care for her mother, who was battling cancer, continuing to write and record music as a coping mechanism. Her mother died later that year, and Zauner wound up compiling the music into Japanese Breakfast’s 2016 debut album, “Psychopomp.”
She also grappled with her grief in her highly successful debut memoir, “Crying in H Mart,” which was released in 2021.
The record reached mainstream success quickly, prompting the group to sign with record label Dead Oceans shortly after its release. Japanese Breakfast has since released three more studio albums, each imbued with the band’s poppy yet melancholic soundscapes. Its 2025 release, “For Melancholy Brunettes (& Sad Women),” is the band’s most mature album yet.
Japanese Breakfast is scheduled to perform two back-to-back nights at the Masonic.
Japanese Breakfast: 8 p.m. Wednesday-Thursday, Aug. 27-28. Tickets start at $41. The Masonic, 1111 California St., S.F. 415-281-9250. www.ticketmaster.com
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