REVIEW · Festivals
sis in Atami, Part 1: Thirty Minutes Between the Sea and Summer Light
sis Part 1 setlist
Performance order
- “DING DONG Kudasai.”▶ Watch video
- “Aoi Sangoshou”▶ Watch video
- “Michishirube”▶ Watch video
- “DIVER”▶ Watch video
- “Ai no Battery”▶ Watch video
- “Megumi no Hito”▶ Watch video
On August 24, 2026, sis appeared at a summer event at Shinsui Park Event Plaza in Atami, Shizuoka Prefecture. The performance belonged to a free live program accompanying the Atami Sea Fireworks Festival scheduled for that evening. sis was to play a first set of about thirty minutes from 4:25 p.m., followed by a second at 6:40 p.m. Atami’s midsummer sea and outdoor stage, with tourists waiting for fireworks and fans of different artists mingling in one space, created a performance environment unlike a solo concert or live house.
Before sis’s first set, the male group Kanjuku Danshi (完熟男子) performed. The movement in the audience was interesting. Kanjuku Danshi’s fans, who had secured front places since morning, naturally handed them over after their performance to people waiting for sis, with the understanding that the places would be returned afterward. Fans of different artists shared the space by yielding it to those who needed it at each performance time. Consequently, the area immediately in front of the stage naturally changed over to people who had actually come to see the current performer. At a small regional event, different fandoms sharing the audience area in step with the program, rather than clashing over places, helped give the day a gentler atmosphere.
“DING DONG Kudasai.” begins beside the summer sea
At 4:25 p.m., the four members stepped onstage and sis’s first performance began. Part 1 comprised six songs: “DING DONG Kudasai.,” “Aoi Sangoshou,” “Michishirube,” “DIVER,” “Ai no Battery” and “Megumi no Hito.” It was a fairly concentrated program for a thirty-minute regional-festival slot. The alternation of the group’s songs and familiar covers created a format both newcomers and existing fans could enjoy.
The opener, “DING DONG Kudasai.,” was an appropriate choice for getting the stage going quickly. At an outdoor event, catching attention within the first few minutes matters more than lengthy introductions or explanations, and the song announced the start with readily accessible energy. The following “Aoi Sangoshou” was a particularly memorable combination of song and place. Hearing it on a stage immediately beside the sea, exposed directly to summer light and wind, created a distinctly different impression from hearing the same song inside a live house.
“Aoi Sangoshou” is a familiar song repeatedly performed on many stages, but here its title and melody overlapped with the actual space and naturally gained a new context. Atami’s sea around the stage, the strong afternoon sunlight and the continuous sea breeze fitted the music so well that they almost felt like part of the song. Sound conditions and climate often work against outdoor performances, but a particular location can also give a familiar song an entirely different image. “Aoi Sangoshou” heard in Atami came close to precisely that experience.
The group’s present within familiar repertoire
The third song, “Michishirube,” and fourth, “DIVER,” were relatively familiar repertoire for those who had followed sis’s recent shows regularly. After the opening pair quickly established the mood, consecutive songs frequently heard in the group’s current performances brought a steadier flow to the middle. Especially at an outdoor festival mixing newcomers and existing fans, centering songs already thoroughly tested onstage can maintain intensity more effectively than filling the program entirely with unfamiliar material.
One striking feature of sis live is that the four members retain their individual characters and movements while coming together as a team at the center of each song. With stage and audience as close as they were here, not only vocals but also glances, small hand movements, moments of looking at one another and responses directed toward spectators become clearer. Large shows guide the eye through group choreography, lighting and screens, but on a relatively small outdoor stage like Shinsui Park’s, individual expressions and audience responses instead have a major influence on the impression.
This performance likewise did not proceed simply by repeating predetermined choreography and songs. The short distance naturally led the members to check the front audience’s reactions, while fans answered each number with familiar responses. These small interactions can be even more important at a regional festival than at a solo concert where everyone knows the group well. First-time sis viewers naturally understand the atmosphere by watching nearby fans respond, and those existing fans’ reactions themselves become another means of drawing unfamiliar spectators into the performance.
“Ai no Battery” connects Korean and Japanese stages
The fifth song, “Ai no Battery,” was one of the set’s clearest expressions of sis’s work across Korea and Japan. The original is a signature trot song by Hong Jin-young, long loved in Korea, but repeated performances by sis in Japan have also made it relatively familiar within the group’s shows. For a team active in both countries, handling both repertoires can do more than expand the variety of covers: it can show the group’s present sphere of activity within the performance itself.
Hearing the song at a Japanese regional festival made the show’s character particularly interesting. Already familiar to existing fans, it could offer Japanese passersby a natural encounter with one part of Korean popular music. Conversely, for people who knew sis in Korea and had traveled to Atami, the sight of a familiar Korean song being sung again beside Japan’s summer sea could itself feel like a small cultural crossing point.
This mixture is another characteristic of sis today. Japanese popular music, the group’s own repertoire, Korean trot and songs known through television move together within one show. A team not yet fixed firmly within a single genre might be seen as having a weakness, but it also offers potential for expansion by giving different Korean and Japanese audiences several entry points. If activity across both countries continues, choosing which song for which stage, and connecting that repertoire with the group’s own color, could become important in shaping its identity.
“Megumi no Hito” follows when the end seems to have arrived
The show continued after “Ai no Battery.” Its sixth and final song was “Megumi no Hito.” Bright and strongly rhythmic, it suited an outdoor-festival finale and lifted the atmosphere built by the preceding five songs once more. It also fitted naturally with a summer afternoon by the sea before the sun had fully gone down.
The final song mattered to the set’s structure too. Ending with “Ai no Battery” would have closed on the steadiness of relatively familiar repertoire. Placing “Megumi no Hito” last instead moved the ending toward something more immediate and festive. It was also appropriate because maintaining energy to the final moment matters at regional events where artists appear in succession and general spectators waiting for fireworks mingle with fans.
Fitting six songs into a short thirty minutes requires the transitions not to drag. Here, “DING DONG Kudasai.” started things quickly, followed by “Aoi Sangoshou,” particularly well matched to the sea; “Michishirube” and “DIVER,” familiar in current sis shows; “Ai no Battery,” expressing the group’s cross-border work; and “Megumi no Hito,” raising the festive temperature again. Rather than deliberately building one strong narrative, the set balanced songs of different characters within a short time to create a flow suited to a regional festival.
An outdoor performance with little distance between stage and audience
The Shinsui Park stage had a sense of distance entirely different from a large concert hall or live house. Neither the stage nor the gap between the front row and members was large, so expressions and small movements naturally caught the eye during the show. Without relying on elaborate lighting or giant screens, spectators could see directly who was looking where and how they answered audience reactions.
That proximity also suited sis’s performance style. Rather than focusing only on singing and choreography, the members kept checking the audience’s response, and fans reacted from nearby, interacting naturally with the stage. At a regional festival featuring successive artists, not everyone comes specifically for sis, making a quick connection between stage energy and audience reaction important. The short physical distance here conveyed the atmosphere more directly even to first-time viewers.
Above all, the conditions of the venue itself, rather than huge production effects, shaped the impression. Atami’s sea immediately beside it, strong summer light, the constant sea breeze and spectators responding close to the stage became the backdrop without any additional device. The same six songs can be heard again elsewhere, but the memory of live music changes with the space and atmosphere in which it is heard. The impression left by this small outdoor stage likewise came from that sense of place and closeness.
Sharing a venue across different fandoms
The atmosphere in the audience was as memorable as the music. Kanjuku Danshi’s fans handing front places to sis fans after their own performance and receiving them back after sis’s first set meant more than simple convenience. Though their preferred artists differed, they shared the audience area by yielding space at each performance time to those most eager to see that stage.
A few front places mean a great deal at a small regional festival. With a low stage and limited audience capacity, a few meters can considerably change the experience. Competition for places can easily turn into conflict in such conditions, but here different fandoms used the space with respect for each other’s performances. After sis finished, the people at the front naturally left their places, and those waiting for the next act moved forward again. One audience area opened in turn to different fandoms over time.
Fandom culture is sometimes discussed around strong allegiance or competition for places, yet regional festivals where fans of several artists share one space can produce a different picture. People can want a good view of their own artist while recognizing that others came for the same reason. When a small order of changing places for each other’s performances and returning them as agreed works, competition over limited space can instead become a way of respecting each other’s fan activities. This atmosphere was why Atami’s audience area felt unusually comfortable that day.
The sea and summer light complete sis’s first thirty minutes
sis’s first Atami set did not foreground vast production or special stage equipment. It took place on a small outdoor stage in one corner of Shinsui Park, surrounded not only by fans attending for particular artists but also by tourists passing through while waiting for the evening fireworks. Precisely because of that, the fundamentals of live performance—expressions, movements, song choices and audience reactions—were more directly visible than elaborate devices.
The six songs differed in character and origin but connected relatively naturally within the atmosphere of a summer outdoor festival. Familiar Japanese popular-song covers offered an easy entry for newcomers, while “Michishirube” and “DIVER” showed existing fans the group’s present repertoire. “Ai no Battery” added the color of a team working across Korea and Japan, and the final “Megumi no Hito” maintained the outdoor festival’s temperature until the end.
Above all, Atami itself became part of the show. As “Aoi Sangoshou” sounded, a real sea lay immediately alongside, while strong summer light and wind kept passing through the stage. The seasonal atmosphere that indoor performances must create with lighting and video already existed in the venue. When music and place happen to align precisely, a live performance becomes more than hearing the same song again. That is also why “Aoi Sangoshou,” heard many times before, is remembered as a slightly different song in Atami.
sis’s first thirty minutes were that kind of performance. Many of the songs could be heard at other shows, judged solely by the setlist. But the space of Shinsui Park, the atmosphere of different fandoms naturally sharing the audience area and small coincidences in the sea breeze combined to make it a show belonging to that day alone. It demonstrated that live music’s value comes not only from new songs or enormous productions, but can change according to where and with whom the same music is performed.
A second sis performance was scheduled at the same place that evening, followed by the sea fireworks emblematic of Atami’s summer nights. Yet even the first thirty minutes beginning at 4:25 p.m. made the group’s approach clear enough: absorbing a place’s atmosphere even on a small regional stage, connecting repertoire of different characters into one performance and responding to an audience at close range. Beginning against the sea and summer light, the first Atami stage left a memory created only on that day in that place, rather than relying on elaborate devices.
Read the two Atami performances together
Part 1 and Part 2 shared four of their respective six songs. Changes in order and light created a different flow even for the same songs. The move of “Megumi no Hito” from the first show’s finale to the second show’s opening offers a clue to understanding the difference.
Related sources
Related event footage
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MAKOTO. places her own song among familiar classics — Kabukicho Street Live
sis in Atami, Part 2: Evening Falls on the Same Stage
