Review: Japanese Breakfast’s ‘Lord of the Rings’ Halloween homecoming at the Fillmore

Michelle Zauner has been on such a magical run with Jubilee, the joyful 2021 album by her band Japanese Breakfast, plus the runaway success of her Crying in H Mart memoir, that it seems a legitimate question: Is she some kind of wizard?

She did dress up as one at the Fillmore Philadelphia on Tuesday night. For Halloween, and the final date of a Japanese Breakfast tour that has stretched over more than two years, the band members were all costumed as characters from The Lord of the Rings.

Zauner was Saruman, the white-robed, long-haired, bearded sorcerer played by Christopher Lee. The band was introduced as “Japanese Breakfast, my precious!” by surprise guest Saturday Night Live comedian Sarah Sherman (more on her later), outfitted as Gollum.

The set opened with “Paprika,” with Zauner taking to the stage with a walking staff in hand which she used to bang a gong illuminated by a circle of skulls. The Jubilee highlight track’s hook celebrates the spice of life with the declaration: “It’s a rush!”

It sure was. The nerdy LOTR presentation didn’t have any obvious connection to the music. But the playful staging — Zauner’s husband, guitar and keyboard player Peter Bradley, wore a towering pointy hat as Gandolf, and sax player Adam Schatz was a tree person — added to the special-occasion sense of the hometown show.

Four songs in, before the wistful “Kokomo, IN,” Zauner said: “I’ve already got a mouth full of hair.” She chided Bradley, er, Gandolf, for tossing aside his fake beard. The Bryn Mawr College graduate who made her indie rock entrée with Philly emo band Little Big League called the show “The Last Jubilee,” and said no discussion was needed in deciding where to close the tour.

“It had to be here,” she said. “We’ll always be a Philly band. We came up in this city. We will die in this city!” She added that Philadelphia “had so much to do with the musician I’ve become.”

That progression was evident throughout a 90-minute, 20-song set that was generous in spirit and lovingly received by a largely uncostumed sold-out crowd.

There were two nods to Zauner’s Little Big League days. First was “Boyish,” a spiky, noisy song originally recorded by that band and then reborn as something more smooth and sophisticated on Japanese Breakfast’s 2017 album Soft Sounds From Another Planet.

Later, Zauner brought out her former bandmate Kevin O’Halloran — dressed as an elf, if my understanding of LOTR fashion is correct — for Little Big League’s chiming “Lindsey.” And since LBL bassist Deven Craige is a full-time member of Japanese Breakfast, that amounted to three-quarters of a Little Big League reunion.

The show displayed Zauner’s range by touching on her 2021 soundtrack to the video game Sable, with “Glider.” And it showcased her evolution as a narrative, non-autobiographical songwriter on eight songs from Jubilee, with her taking over lead guitar duties from Bradley on the lyrical, stretched out “Posing for Cars.”

The night was at its most ecstatic — complete with confetti cannons — with the set-closing, hyper-catchy crowd-pleaser, “Everybody Wants to Love You,” from Psychopomp, Japanese Breakfast’s 2016 debut.

That album marked the first time Zauner wrote about the death of her mother, Chongmi, the relationship that is central to the story about grief, food, and Korean identity told in Crying in H Mart.

The bestseller — currently No. 6 on the New York Times nonfiction paperback list — is being made into a movie, with no release date yet set. Zauner has written a screenplay, and The White Lotus actor Will Sharpe is directing.

» READ MORE: Michelle Zauner of Philly’s Japanese Breakfast has a new memoir born of grief and a new album full of joy

Tuesday’s show clearly carried emotional weight for performers and fans. It marks the end of one phase of Zauner’s career while pointing ahead to the next.

The new phase was teased with one brand-new song — the spare and lovely “Orlando” — with Zauner joking that it was from a forthcoming Japanese Breakfast album made up entirely of sea chanteys.

And then Zauner announced that she and Bradley are moving to Korea in 2024 “to write my next book and work on the album.” The next chapters from the musician and author are coming soon.

The show was opened by West Philly indie quintet Crooks & Nannies, with leaders Max Rafter and Sam Huntington switching off between singing out front and playing drums.

The duo, who grew up in upstate New York before moving to Philly a decade ago, pulled from their new album Real Life, their first in seven years. They were more compelling the noisier they got, particularly when Rafter — with a face-colored Frankenstein green — got skronky on the saxophone.

Sherman followed as an unannounced extra-special attraction. Her confrontational humor — which at times brought Andy Kaufman to mind — did not go over well at the Fillmore, however. It was daring: It takes some nerve to come to Philadelphia and trash Eagles fans and cheesesteaks. Her underwritten 20-minute set felt twice as long. She wore a clown suit but got few laughs.