Music was in the air as the second weekend of the Austin City Limits music festival was taking place about five miles away. I had the opportunity to see Japanese Breakfast perform at the festival the weekend before but now the band, along with Dehd, were ready to take the stage in one of the festival’s late-night shows.
As the festival was on its final sets with Flume and P!nk, the late-night show at Stubb’s Waller Creek Amphitheater was just about to start with Dehd taking the stage. The indie rock band from Chicago is still fresh off their new album ‘Blue Skies’ along with a recent single ‘Eggshells’ released in September. The trio perfectly set the stage for the night with their amazing live instrumentals and hypnotizing vocals that perfectly warmed up the crowd for more great music.
After a short break for the crowd to prepare their dancing shoes again, Japanese Breakfast took the stage with two songs off their recent album ‘Jubilee’ before taking the crowd back more than a few years to their 2016 album ‘Psychopomp’.
Last week during their weekend one ACL set, frontwoman Michelle Zauner recounted her previous performances in Austin, Texas, expressing her appreciation for the city and the musical experiences that have come from performing in the Live Music Capital of the World. Zauner seems to double down on that statement through her high-energy and amazing vocals that reached seemed to reach every corner of the venue block. From taking full command of the stage, and even jumping onto a couple of speakers, to coming off stage and running up to the fans at the barricade. It did not matter if you were in the very back, you felt her energy and her appreciation for the fans in attendance.
Japanese Breakfast’s set took the crowd on an amazing ride through the alternative pop band’s discography by incorporating existing elements of our favorite songs and mixing them with epic live instrumentals, like Landlady’s Adam Schatz on the saxophone for example. Along with the band’s discography, ‘Glider’ from the “Sable” Original Video Game Soundtrack, was a favorite among the crowd as fans roared at the announcement from Zauner that the song would be next.
Japanese Breakfast and Dehd performances brought an amazing vibe to the ACL Fest Nights series and festival as a whole. Japanese Breakfast and Dehd are set to take the stage once more in Austin at ACL on Sunday.
