I’ve always said that if you are a fan of any international band and they are playing in your part of town, definitely go see them. Even if you’re unsure and you’re on the fence, go see them! With the way travel and visas are in this country, it’s seemingly harder and harder for international bands to tour the U.S. One such band I’ve been into these last couple years is Band-Maid and they are an all female hard rock band from Japan. On Monday October 12, 2026, I was lucky enough to see them at The Wiltern. Let’s take a look…..
First off let me start by saying always double check, triple, quadruple check your GPS. When I went to plug my phone into my car for Apple CarPlay, I clicked the ticket reminder icon and it ended up taking me near City Hall in downtown LA. Now granted I only lost about 10 minutes and right when I got to The Wiltern, parked, made it through security, and finally found my seat, they just started the first song “Super Sunshine.” Now for this show, there was no opening band so as I always like to say, time for the main event……
Band-Maid has always been a band that I’ve wanted to see ever since I first heard their collaboration with The Warning for the song “Show Me.” Now at first glance, one may not take these ladies seriously. I mean 5 girls dressed up as French maids seems a bit gimmicky however once you listen to the music and see them live, you’ll see that these are serious musicians who write some really great, heavy rock music.
As I said thanks to Apple Maps taking me about 10 minutes away from where I was supposed to be, I literally walked in and they were starting to kick their set off with the song “Super Sunshine” off their latest EP SCOOOOOP which of course had the crowd already excited followed immediately by (the song that made me a fan) “Domination” and “HATE?”
Of course as it goes, the band played a few more songs before addressing the crowd broken English and all. Now they may not speak English very well but you know something, it really didn’t matter and in fact, it made the show that much better. They thanked the crowd and while that was going on, their crew was bringing out another amp to which they said that a special guest would be joining them on the next song. It was one of those brief moments where you’re wondering who it could possibly be and turns out it was Mike Einziger of the band Incubus who joined them on the song “Bestie.”
Once that ended, they played a brand new song called “Spin” which is to be released on October 28 of this year and if that song is any indication of the next album, then I for one can’t wait to hear the rest of it. They then took a break where they said that they were going to not be touring as much next year and they wanted to regroup and focus on making their brand new album. They did say that they would be back in LA as soon as they could but don’t expect to see much touring from them. Personally, I feel like the “break” was a bit long and would’ve preferred to see them play more songs but this was the most I’ve heard each band member speak so it was actually pretty cool. After their break, they played five more songs before ending the set with “No God” and Mike Einziger on guitar.
Going into this, I really wasn’t sure what to expect. This is a band that doesn’t really tour the U.S. a lot not to mention I don’t really know very many people who have heard of this band. Then of course you’re not sure if they’re better live or not and I am very happy to say that they are just as good live as they are on their albums. Then of course there’s the language barrier. Their lyrics are mostly in Japanese with a few English words here but you know something? That really doesn’t matter and it really just shows that music itself is a universal language. The crowd was very much into it with them chanting and raising their fists and singing along. All of this made for a very fun night and the fact that this was sold out on a Monday in LA proves that rock music is very much alive and well!!
Final Grade: A
Band-Maid is:
Miku Kobato- Guitar/Backing Voice
Kanami Tōno- Guitar/Backing Voice
Akane Hirose- Drums
Misa- Bass
Saiki Atsumi- Voice/Keyboard
Band-Maid played:
- SUPER SUNSHINE
- DOMINATION
- HATE?
- Choose me
- Zen
- Brightest Star
- Toi et moi
- CAGE
- Lock and Load
- Present Perfect
- endless Story
- Memorable
- Bestie
(with Mike Einziger) - SPIN
(Followed by break) - What is justice?
- ENERGETIC
- Dilly-Dally
- Ready to Rock
- NO GOD
(with Mike Einziger)
