Japanther - Waterloo Park (SXSW 2009; March 21)

In high school I crowd surfed all the time. If I was feeling brave, I’d venture into mosh pits, only to escape seconds later, bruised and sniffling. I didn’t even mess around with circle pits--those were too intense for me. But I hadn’t been to a show in years where any of these activities were even considered, so I figured they were a thing of the past. That was before I checked out Japanther at Mess With Texas 3 at Waterloo Park.

I had gotten a taste of such rowdy activities during The Death Set and Team Robespierre’s sets earlier in the day. Japanther took things to the next level. As Ian Vanek and Matt Reilly stepped onto the stage, they were joined by a steady stream of exuberant fans who stayed onstage just long enough to be noticed, and then dove, headfirst, into the frenzied crowd.

This continued for Japanther’s entire twenty-five minutes, while the members blasted out some surprisingly poppy punk. Despite fearing for my camera’s safety, it was exciting and invigorating. Thankfully, a couple of peripheral twenty-somethings’ attempts to create a circle pit were stymied by cooler heads. I still wasn’t ready for that.