The buzz around Governors Ball this year seemed to be, as promoters would hope, strongest for the top-of-poster heroes, with some love flowing to the newly minted major label star Slayyyter and other hyped-up acts.
So where did that leave Japanese Breakfast, a relative legacy act on such a youthful bill?
Slotted in at 2:30 p.m., and not on the main stage, Michelle Zauner and company sauntered out for a relaxed matinee performance devoid of any clout chasing, with the only social media-ready moment being the reveal of her very visible baby bump.
The art-pop group crafted a setlist from four of its albums, with 2021’s “Jubilee” getting the most run, including the set opener “Paprika.” Casually strolling the stage, “It’s a rush,” she sang, and tapped a gong that lit up. Sax and violin helped flesh out the chamber pop ethos that is at the core of the group’s work.
Zauner strapped on an electric guitar and led the collective into “Honey Water,” a deliberate, brooding contrast to “Jubilee,” from last year’s “For Melancholy Brunettes (& sad women).” She held the guitar aloft as the song ended, wringing feedback noises from it. She switched to an acoustic for “Kokomo, Indiana” — “a song about a city we’ve never been to.”
“Road Head” was dreamy, with a slightly glitchy drum beat and sweet guitar trills from Peter Bradley. “Mega Circuit” was a slightly jazzy treat, and “Boyish,” dating back to Zauner’s old band Little Big League, was a tenderly delivered ballad. “If you go to her/ Don’t expect to come home to me,” she sang.
“The Body Is A Blade” was aided by photos on the video screen of Zauner as a child, with her parents, leading nicely into “Picture Window,” which she introduced as a “song about by baby daddy” — her husband, Bradley, the guitarist — before giggling off mic.
“Be Sweet” was a tremendous moment, with Zauner dancing and working the crowd. Devin Craige’s funky bass and dark synths gave way to the anthemic choruses.
Blood Orange drew a large, attentive audience to the Snapchat stage, the same one Japanese Breakfast played, for a set that was supposed to happen a day earlier but was postponed due to storms. With five albums under his belt as Blood Orange, and two before that with Lightspeed Champion, Dev Hynes is another old-timer by Gov Ball standards, but there was not a lick of nostalgia present in his arresting, genre-jumping set of soulful soundscapes.
Watching Blood Orange is a bit like watching Bon Iver: you feel like you’re witnessing an artist make music in a studio as much as seeing a concert. He first emerged, wearing headphones, as he did for the entire set, with a cello, playing and singing a snippet of The Smiths’ “How Soon Is Now.” It was an excellent mood setter and a familiar invitation to the festivalgoers who weren’t afficionados of his work (yet).
Hynes sat down at his bank of keyboards to play a Fender Rhodes electric piano and was back on his feet for one of the set’s emotional high points, “Saint.” The subject of the song martyred themselves for him, and he didn’t know it at the time: “I got to see you live for more/ You said it before/ You wished I’d seen the saint you were before.”
The frontman switched instruments again, playing an electric guitar on “Somewhere in Between,” which blended R&B with dreamy shoegaze.
“Best To You” was a sumptuous affair, with backing singer Eva Tolkin (Empress sings on the studio version) taking the lead. After a ballad-y intro, the group kicked in with an active, rhythmic pattern, almost tribal, that gave Tolkin a platform to soar. She was a featured player again on “Chosen,” handling the spoken parts covered by Caroline Polacheck originally. It is a 1980s synth pop homage, with electronic drums, popping bass and processed synths, and it plays well in a big crowd.
Blood Orange photo by Ismael Quintanilla III/ Courtesy of Governors Ball
Japanese Breakfast photo by okaynicolita/ Courtesy of Governors Ball
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