The Sirens' allure -- Sirens Sister playing the Sports Center

Sirens Sister doesn't fit in a Seattle music scene filled with indie rock and art-school experimentalism.

The band, which appears Saturday at the Yakima Sports Center, doesn't play atonal noise rock. It doesn't appropriate Appalachian folk chants.

It's not, in other words, edgy.

Instead, Sirens Sister is a throwback to the melodic romanticism of post-punk bands like Echo and the Bunnymen, The Cure and U2. Sirens Sister doesn't want to challenge you or invent new sonic frontiers so much as it wants to -- gasp! -- sound good.

"There just comes a point in every man's life when he just wants to write beautiful, soaring songs," guitarist Leif Anderson says. "Like melodic, big, soaring songs."

That point came in 2006 for the members of Sirens Sister, three of whom made up the core of now-defunct Seattle favorite Vendetta Red. Where Vendetta Red made a name for itself with two angry Epic Records albums and the aggressive full-throated emo of the hit single "Shatterday," Sirens Sister has a more subtle sound.

The new music sounds less like hard-core and more like Duran Duran. Vocalist Zach Davidson's trademark scream has morphed into something almost sweet -- not saccharine; more like honey -- that replaces anger with a more wise and weary sort of emotion.

Anderson, interviewed by phone earlier this week, says Sirens Sister is the adult answer to Vendetta Red's extended adolescence. The "screaming and punching and kicking" of that band was great and meaningful at the time. But he's over it now.

"I'm not mad at my parents anymore," Anderson says. "Zach's not mad at his parents anymore. We're kind of finding our way."

The change happened fast. Sirens Sister was basically born during the final days of Vendetta Red when Davidson started getting back into 1980s bands -- the kind of stuff that's on "The Breakfast Club" soundtrack, says Anderson, who pooh-poohed the new direction at first.

"I was still all about punk rock," he says. "And (Davidson) kind of got me into Echo (and the Bunnymen)."

They wrote the first Sirens Sister album, 2006's "Echoes From the Ocean Floor," in just a couple of days and started playing shows.

"It came about so quickly we didn't know what to do," Anderson says. "We didn't even have a band photo."

Though not as immediately popular as Vendetta Red, the new band started developing a following among Seattle music fans who embraced Sirens Sister's disdain for artifice. The second album, "Unspeakable Things," came out last fall. And the band plans a third, to be recorded this summer, after it plays as many shows as possible between now and then.

A Sirens Sister performance is not as confrontational as Vendetta Red's were, but there are still times when things get wild on stage, Anderson says.

"If the audience gives energy back to us, it definitely becomes a freakout," he says.

Little by little, the band is gaining notice -- even if it's not really like anything else in Seattle.

"I don't know if we've ever really fit in," Anderson says. "I don't think it really matters."

* Pat Muir can be reached at 509-577-7693 or pmuir@yakimaherald.com.

If you go

WHAT: Sirens Sister.

WHEN: 9 p.m. Saturday.

WHERE: Yakima Sports Center, 214 E. Yakima Ave.

COVER: $5.