Day 2: Saturday
Panel

   Moving on to the next day, Saturday, I felt a good deal better after having gotten a night’s sleep. There were no public SID activities scheduled for that day that I knew of, however I stumbled upon one. It had been listed in the program book as merely being a photo shoot for those that wanted to pay $5 to have their picture taken with the band. But after walking by and seeing a panel like atmosphere I decided to go in and discovered they were having a question and answer period before the photo session. Unfortunately, I had already missed a good deal of the questions and was in the back thanks to coming in late so I couldn’t hear perfectly.

   Some questions that I did hear was someone asking if anyone of the band was married, to which the answer was “no”. Another was for the ages of all the band members. There was a pause while the members talked amongst themselves in response to this one and their translator mentioned, “I don’t know why they’re discussing it.” Which was met with much laughter from the audience. In the end they asked the fans to guess how old they are and they answered with ages varying from 17-25. Most of these were close enough to get a positive response from the band. But when they got to Mao someone shouted out 400-something and Mao responded that that was correct.

   Another question that was asked was who their American band influences are. The only one I heard clearly was the mention of Britney Spears. This was also met with much laughter from the audience. From what I saw of this Q and A, the band members seemed to be very nice, funny, charming boys. The photo session started soon after and I took my leave.

Day 3: Sunday
Pre-concert

   The next and last SID event took place Sunday afternoon. It was the acoustic concert. It was scheduled to start at 3:30pm. I got to the hall outside the room it was going to be held in around 2:45 after checking out of our hotel room and taking care of our luggage. There were two long lines formed, one for VIP ticket holders and one for general admission people, similar to the Friday concert. But unlike the Friday concert, this one was to be held in a much smaller room. I found the nice staff member that remembered me from Friday and took my place in line. I talked to some new interesting people that made the wait seem a little less long than it was.

   There was a lot of expression of concern that not all of the fans gathered in line were going to be able to fit in the room. I believe they said it could only hold about 100 people, standing room only. I think this may have been why they decided to change their policy at the last minute and informed the people waiting in line for general admission that they would now have to pay $5 to get into the concert.

   It may have been this decision or it may have been that the concert was once again running rather late, but the hall got much emptier as we continued to wait for the doors to open. Nevertheless, when the doors did open there was still quite a push to get in as quickly as possible and get a good place. Surprisingly contradicting what I had heard earlier, the room was filled with chairs and everyone took a seat. From what I could see from the second row up front, all of the chairs did seem to fill up with people.

Concert

   We were given the no photography rules again and once again asked to clap and chant “si-doe” for the band to come out. And come out they did within a few minutes. They were dressed similarly to how they had the past two days. Their equipment was arranged in a straight row across the stage, so Yuya was not allocated to the back this time. They also all got to sit down for this concert.

   This concert seemed to be even more enjoyable to me than the first. This may have been partially because I was less tired for this one. But it was also because the band was just that good and it had a more personal atmosphere. I was amazed at how completely dead silent the room went during songs until the audience was certain that each had ended and then they burst into applause and screams.

   Some memorable amusing and sweet things happened between songs during this concert. After one of the earlier ones, Mao looked around confused, presumably looking for their translator or someone that could get him. But the room had magically become devoid of staff at that moment.

   But it wasn’t too long before their translator came back and gave the fans another opportunity to ask the band some questions. One of the questions was whether they would come back to America and they all said that they’d definitely like to. Another person confessed to grabbing Aki’s pearl necklace off during the Friday concert. But he was gracious enough to say that she could keep it as a gift. An additional question was raised as to what inspired the band’s music. The answer to that one was feelings.

   Perhaps the sweetest question was asked of Mao; when dating a girl does he like to take things fast or slow. He answered, “slow”, to the delight of the women assembled. Another amusing remark came from Shinji, who had a black rose attached to his microphone. He said, “Rose of pain.” in English, but admitted to the translator, who relayed it to us, that he said it, but didn’t know what it meant.

   At one point someone screamed out, “Aki, you’re sexy!” and to Mao, “You’re sexy, too!” Both men laughed and seemed to even be a little nervous in response. On that note, Aki later during their closing remarks said, “I love you.” in Japanese to the audience. He seemed to be pretty coy and comfortable about it. However Mao said, “I love you.” in English to the fans and immediately burst out into laughter afterward. He seemed to be a mixture of embarrassed and amused at his own proclamation and it took him several minutes afterward to be able to take his hand away from his face and stop laughing.

   The translator’s leaving the stage and taking the microphone with him, leaving Mao without one was another hilarious moment for both the band and the fans. The band’s behavior throughout this concert further convinced me that they all seemed like genuinely nice guys that were thrilled to be in America and seeing their fans there.

Closing thoughts

   The Sunday acoustic concert ended to many awes of remorse from the fans at the weekend’s events being over. I also felt sad to see SID go. I definitely gained much respect, admiration, and affection for them over the weekend. I do wish there had been an autograph signing or some other public event to get another chance to interact with the band. I am interested to hear how their private parties went for the fans that paid for them. All together I think that Anime Central and jpophouse did a wonderful job of managing SID’s appearance here. My main complaint would have to be the general disorganized feel and the lack of communication between different staff members as to what exactly was going on. But I’m thankful to have had this opportunity to be exposed to them and their music. I think that SID put on an amazing performance and gained many new American fans and I hope they have the chance to come back soon.

Visit SID’s official website at http://sid.gn.to/english/sidap.html
Visit jpophouse at www.jpophouse.com

Questions? Comments? Email me at alexeil@verizon.net