On June 24th, J-pop artist LiSA performed her concert at the YouTube Theater in Los Angeles, California, as a part of her North American Tour, “LiSA: Another Great Day North American Headline Shows 2025.” Despite performing the day prior at the Roxy Theater, June 24’s concert felt special because fans, including myself, got to celebrate her birthday with her.
LiSA’s Show Kicked Off with Electrifying Excitement
LiSA’s concert was full of anticipation. Upon arriving at the YouTube Theater, fans lined up, ready to see LiSA perform. Once the doors opened, everyone then queued up to either take pictures with LiSA’s photo op or purchase merchandise. I also lined up to take a picture at the photo op and even bought a penlight designed specifically for the tour.
While purchasing the star-shaped penlight isn’t necessary, I bought one because I feel it’s a must-have item for any Japanese concert. It’s a way for fans and artists to interact with one another, and I also just like getting unique penlights for each concert.
A Powerful and Amazing Performance
Once it was time for the concert, a short introduction video was shown before LiSA appeared and began her show by singing “oath sign,” the opening theme song for Fate/Zero. The pumped-up audience immediately started cheering and swinging their penlights. Fans who were more familiar with her song even chanted some of the lyrics.
In fact, her first three songs were all from anime series. Her second song was “Catch the Moment” from Sword Art Online: Ordinal Scale, while her third song was “Datte Atashino Hero,” the ending theme song of My Hero Academia Season 2. A monitor screen displayed scenes from the second season of the My Hero Academia series as she sang her third song. Despite not recognizing the first two songs, I was immediately sucked into the excitement and fervor of fans who recognized which anime the songs were from. I was very thrilled when she sang “Datta Atashino Hero,” since it was one of my favorite theme songs from My Hero Academia.
Moving towards more recent hits, LiSA sang her latest single, “ReawakeR (feat. Felix of Stray Kids)” from Solo Leveling, which had the audience ecstatic. A few emotional songs followed “ReawakeR,” including “unlasting,” the ending theme song of Sword Art Online Alicization War of Underworld, and “Homura,” the main theme song for Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba – The Movie: Mugen Train. Clips of the Demon Slayer movie were also shown on screen during “Homura.” This progression of the set list gave the audience a break from all the excitement before picking it right back up again.
In my opinion, the highlights of the concert are songs from popular anime series in the past few years, including Shangri La Season 2’s opening theme song, “Queen,” Sword Art Online Alicization‘s first opening theme song, “ADAMAS,” and “ReawakeR.” We also can’t forget “Gurenge,” from Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba, one of LiSA’s popular and famous songs that she attempted to close the show with, accompanied by a screen with lyrics so that fans could sing along with her.
However, not wanting the concert to end, the crowd screamed for an encore. LiSA ended up singing “crossing field,” the opening of Sword Art Online, before fully ending her concert on a good note with her song “best day, best way.” The song was surprisingly fitting to end her concert in Los Angeles, as her tour headliner was “Another Great Day.”
LiSA and Her Fans Share Mutual Love and Appreciation
Aside from the amazing songs LiSA sang, there was a lot of interaction between her and her fans. LiSA did her best to talk to her fans in English for the entire show without a translator. She even encouraged everyone to sing and cheer, and she taught us how to swing our light sticks in a certain way for one of her songs. There was even a cheer battle during a couple of her songs, and a lucky fan managed to get on stage with LiSA for one of her songs. During her encore performance, LiSA went up and down the rows as she sang to see and greet everyone, sometimes waving and giving high-fives.
Throughout her concert, LiSA showed us her tremendous love for her global fans.
Celebrating LiSA’s Birthday
During LiSA’s last encore, the band suddenly sprang into a birthday song, dramatically shifting her performance at the YouTube Theater into a special birthday celebration. All staff, band members, and fans sang in unison.
As they finished, one of the staff members presented a three-tiered cupcake stand of her favorite cupcakes from Los Angeles. The screen also displayed Happy Birthday messages from fans who got the opportunity to give her a message and wish her a happy birthday.
A Memorable Birthday Concert
From the songs to the fan interactions, LiSA’s concert was certainly memorable, especially since this was LiSA’s first solo tour in North America. From the excitement I saw from everyone before, during, and even after the concert, there is no doubt that her concert was a huge success, leaving fans hoping for more future tours from the Japanese artist. LiSA’s North American Tour is one that everyone will remember for years to come.
