Silent Siren, also known as "SaiSai" (taken from the first sound of each of the words) stopped by San Francisco earlier this month, one of their two stops in the States on their S World Tour 2016 . This marks Silent Siren's second time in San Francisco. They were in town only a few months earlier in July for J-Pop Summit (check out our interview coverage here). Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to see them back in July, so it's the first time seeing them for me.
The band consists of Suu (Sumire Yoshida on vocals and guitar), Hinanchu (Hinako Umemura on drums), Ainyan (Aina Yamauchi on bass), and Yukarun (Yukako Kurosaka on keyboard and synth). Silent Siren is one of the fastest bands to reach the lofty stage of the Nippon Budokan at just over two years after signing with their current label, Dreamusic. Silent Siren has toured across Japan as well as Taiwan and Hong Kong; making their way toward becoming international sensations.
The concert was held at Slim’s, a smaller but popular downtown venue. Upon arriving, I noticed two lines with one of them being led by a pink-clad squad. These are Silent Siren's more dedicated US fans. They had already seen them the day before in Los Angeles and had traveled north for the San Francisco show. These diehard fans had all purchased VIP tickets and arrived hours before, so they could get as close as possible once the doors opened.
Every attendee was given an LED wristband that was synced to the show and changed colors throughout the night. This was most impressive when viewed from afar, so you could see just how many lights there were. As the show went on, a sea of lights undulated back and forth, and you could tell the crowd had a lot of fun.
The band started off with the songs "milk boy" and "Hachigatsu no Yoru" from their newest album, "S", released in March this year. This was followed up by some of their older songs like "BANG!BANG!BANG!", "Besan", and "Joshikou Sensou”.
About halfway through the set, the band paused and held a Q&A, so US fans could learn more about them. Fans who were lucky enough to have their questions chosen also received an exclusive photo taken with the band on the spot! The girls expressed a desire to visit the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland as one of the places they wanted to eventually visit in the United States.
One attendee couldn't resist asking whether they liked San Francisco or Los Angeles more. Suu pondered the question before mentioning, "They asked us the same thing in LA. There's a rivalry between the two right?" She continued by saying, "Everyone who comes to a Silent Siren live are friends; you are all part of the SaiSai family." This garnered the cheers and applause of the crowd.
The last question was about their favorite artists. One big influence for Silent Siren is the Bay Area band Green Day, and this segued perfectly to their next song - a cover of Green Day's "Minority."
One of Silent Siren's most known songs is probably "Secret Base", a cover of the hit song by the all-female band ZONE from 2001, and was made popular again from from the live action adaptation of the anime series "Anohana" (Ano Hi Mita Hana no Namae o Bokutachi wa Mada Shiranai). They followed this with the songs "Stella" and "C.A.F.E.". A few songs later, Yukarun jumped from her keyboards to a turntable and started up the fittingly titled "DanceMusiQ". The girls traded rock for a more electronic sound and threw on some lighted party glasses while encouraging the crowd to groove along with them. They played one more song, "Guruguru Wonderland", before exiting the stage momentarily for a quick costume change. They returned to the stage in their tour t-shirts which marked the beginning of the encore. They finished the night off with the trio of songs "Shindobaddo" (a new song), "What Show is it?" and "Cherry Bomb". The girls did a quick demonstration on how to do the two-handed "cherry bomb" pose and had the crowd joining in on the fun as they sang.
This show was a lot of fun. Even on Slim's tiny stage, Suu and Ainyan were able to bounce back and forth; helping spur the crowd on with their energy. Fans were jumping, waving their hands, and getting into the music. Normally, my tastes are more along the lines of various metal from the relatively lightness of power metal to the speedy thrashfests of melodic death metal. In terms of Japanese music, I prefer bands like Dir en Grey, Exist Trace, and Versailles. Silent Siren's brand of pop-rock is way outside of both of those wheelhouses, but I think I can make a place for them in my rotation. The night clocked in at about two hours, but time flew by quickly watching them.
Silent Siren played a total of 18 songs with much of the set consisting of their newest album "S". The breakdown is as follows:
Setlist:
milk boy S
Hachigatsu no Yoru S
BANG!BANG!BANG! ?????????
Besan 31 Wonderland
????? ?????????
Love install S
Minority (Green Day) cover
????? ?????????
Hapimari (Happy marriage) S
Secret Base (anohana) S
??? ?????????
stella? Start→
C.A.F.E. S
DanceMusiQ ?????????
Guruguru wonderland 31 Wonderland
Encore:
Shindobaddo new
What Show is it? BANG!BANG!BANG!
Cherry Bomb S
Album breakdown:
Start→: 1
31 Wonderland: 2
????????? (Silent Siren): 5
S: 7
BANG!BANG!BANG!: 1
Cover: 1
New: 1
{gallery}Silent Siren SF{/gallery}