Matthew Winters, Saltwater Magic, and Japanther
Caterina Winery on Friday, August 21st

Things were running a little behind so to entertain us out of the blue came Matthew Winters. It was a good thing he had his guitar with him. I am always excited to see him play so it was a nice little treat! After Matthew played a few songs (including two of my fav's Dandelion and Cute and Stabby) Saltwater Magic grabbed their instruments and took too the stage.

They became a band that morning and had a couple of tracks for us. Saltwater Magic had kids in it from Electric City Football Camp, Pegasus Dream, and The City We Live In. For being a band for not even 24 hours it was extremely good. They sounded like an alternative dance scream infusion. They had a kid come up to sing with his back to the crowd (he was nervous) and no lyrics. But he killed it! As Patrick called it an "Awesterfuck," an awesome cluster fuck. It was improve music with a bunch of talented kids. I hope it wasn't a one night thing because it was fun. Plus it's a cool name.

Japanther came hauling into the parking lot and jumped out of the car from Seattle to put their gear on stage. After setting up graffiti covered speaker stacks with a Japanther flag strung in between them kids were quick to huddle up around them on the stage. They told us "we are not your parents do what you want!" And the crowd did it was a mosh pit at times and a dance party at others. It was fun, they were fun.

This was one of those nights where you had to dance and those are the best. Japanther has the set to match it's name; they were loud, fast, and wild. Drumming, switching cassette tapes (yep tapes), pushing buttons, and plenty more all why singing/rapping into telephone microphones. I have never seen them before, they put a lot into their set. Afterwords they were dripping in sweat and mentioned that if anyone had a pool they were willing to go swimming! Bill and Patrick both killed it for putting the show together last minute! Japanther better come back like they said Spokane's the only place in the world that has a goat who eats trash! God bless you Spok-a-vegas.

Check out more photos from the show here!

Andrea@checkitoutmusic.com