IN PHOTOS
Summer Salt croons with Wabie, Boyscott at The Belasco
Three endearing indie pop artists charmed the crowd Saturday night.
Three endearing indie pop artists charmed the crowd Saturday night.







Lead singer and guitarist for Summer Salt, Matthew Terry, broke out a harmonica, bringing a folksy touch to the band’s breezy indie pop sound Saturday at The Belasco. Combined with his guitar, the instrument added a charming, raw sound to the band’s performance of “Can’t Give It Up,” from their latest album, “Reside.”
Summer Salt, founded by Eugene Chung and Terry in 2012, was joined by Wabie and Boyscott for a night packed with slow jams, endearing lyricism and snappy earworms. The crowd swooned for every song, even after Summer Salt arrived at the venue late due to car troubles, pushing the show late into the night.
Los-Angeles-based indie pop artist Wabie was first to take the stage, opening with “Fishin” before he followed with his smash-hit cover “Hey Lover!,” originally written by The Daughters of Eve. The crowd adored Wabie and eagerly sang along as he put a surf-rock touch on the song with more prominent drums and jumpier guitar strumming than the original song.
Wabie followed with original music, including tracks from his latest album, “Sun Chaser,” such as “Family of Three” and “Loving Tree.” But the highlight of his set was “Darcy,” off his debut album “Double Superfine,” which dazzled with a beachy, bossa beat and tender vocals. Wabie finished with an energetic performance of “Like Nothing,” with stronger guitar chords contrasting the light vocals as he sang, “Just keep it up, won’t let it down.”
Boyscott drifted onto stage next, the band bringing their signature earthy sound with wistful, daydreamy singing and coastal guitar hooks. Only a few notes into “After Dark,” tranquility fell over The Belasco as the band’s lead singer, Scott Hermo Jr., softly sang “Phosphorescent habit / Lying awake thinking about if / It’s all so holographic.”
Cricket and nature ambient sounds were added between songs to fill the silence as the band rotated performing hits from its two albums, “Goose Bumps” and “Spellbound.” Songs like “Cabin Fever” and “Moose Head” featured sentimental, tender singing from Hermo, creating a sense of comfort and warmth reminiscent of a campfire.
Boyscott closed out their set with the hit track “Nova Scotia 500.” Waves of nostalgia rushed over audience members as they swayed and nodded their heads along with the beat, brought forth by ethereal guitar riffs and granola vibes.
Texas-based band Summer Salt wasted no time keeping up the wistful energy as soon as they stepped into the spotlight, opening with “Seventeen” and “When I Fall.” The band quickly showed their prowess and cohesion as an ensemble, with the balance between instruments and background vocals.
This was especially apparent on tracks like “Rockaway,” where spellbinding background vocals and impressive vocal jumps from Terry enthralled the audience, especially with calming guitar riffs and wispy verses.
When the band performed “Deja Vu” from their album “Electrolytes,” guitarist Winston Triolo and Terry harmonized, making hearts melt with their cozy and sunny sound through lyrics like “Fluorescent wildflowers and butterflies / Fluttering in the breeze.” Chung then beautifully performed “Smile (괜찮을 거야),” mostly in Korean, bringing a fresh, swinging energy to the set.
Jumping into “Driving to Hawaii,” the title track from Summer Salt’s 2014 EP, the crowd waved their hands in the air to the sensual, slow-danceable music. “Fast Furious and Wonderful” picked up the pace with a groovy build-up and drums that kept the song’s momentum going before Terry got down and dirty with a mesmerizing guitar solo outro.
A standout track from Summer Salt was “Revvin’ My CJ7,” which started soft and sweet but quickly picked up in intensity with a punchier bass line and drumbeat. Terry’s vocal flips when singing “From working overtime” in the prechorus were euphonious and flowed perfectly into the chorus: “If I can’t get it into heaven / I best be revvin’ my CJ7.”
“Candy Wrappers” followed shortly after and was another testament to the aptitude of Chung’s control over his dynamics, never overpowering the hushed and gentle sounds from the rest of the band. The track’s verses, sung by Terry, were wispy and airy, just serene enough to linger in the air and pluck a heart string.
Switching it up for the encore, bassist Alex Togashi swapped out his axe for a sleek, black electric cello to accompany the band. He played a small section of Johann Sebastian Bach’s “Cello Suite No. 1 in G Major” before the rest of the band joined him for “Tell Me.” Togashi’s performance was a treat for the audience as his double stops and slides up and down the fingerboard blended beautifully with the band’s modern sound.
Summer Salt invited a fan onto the stage to lead the crowd in a countdown to start their closer, “Fire Flower,” and jam out with the band. As the song came to a close, the sun-soaked sounds of Summer Salt echoed by the openers were almost assured to linger in the audience’s hearts long after the concert’s end.
We are the only independent newspaper here at USC, run at every level by students. That means we aren’t tied down by any other interests but those of readers like you: the students, faculty, staff and South Central residents that together make up the USC community.
Independence is a double-edged sword: We have a unique lens into the University’s actions and policies, and can hold powerful figures accountable when others cannot. But that also means our budget is severely limited. We’re already spread thin as we compensate the writers, photographers, artists, designers and editors whose incredible work you see in our paper; as we work to revamp and expand our digital presence, we now have additional staff making podcasts, videos, webpages, our first ever magazine and social media content, who are at risk of being unable to receive the support they deserve.
We are therefore indebted to readers like you, who, by supporting us, help keep our paper independent, free and widely accessible.
Please consider supporting us. Even $1 goes a long way in supporting our work; if you are able, you can also support us with monthly, or even annual, donations. Thank you.
This site uses cookies. By continuing to browse the site, you are agreeing to our use of cookies.
Accept settingsDo Not AcceptWe may request cookies to be set on your device. We use cookies to let us know when you visit our websites, how you interact with us, to enrich your user experience, and to customize your relationship with our website.
Click on the different category headings to find out more. You can also change some of your preferences. Note that blocking some types of cookies may impact your experience on our websites and the services we are able to offer.
These cookies are strictly necessary to provide you with services available through our website and to use some of its features.
Because these cookies are strictly necessary to deliver the website, refusing them will have impact how our site functions. You always can block or delete cookies by changing your browser settings and force blocking all cookies on this website. But this will always prompt you to accept/refuse cookies when revisiting our site.
We fully respect if you want to refuse cookies but to avoid asking you again and again kindly allow us to store a cookie for that. You are free to opt out any time or opt in for other cookies to get a better experience. If you refuse cookies we will remove all set cookies in our domain.
We provide you with a list of stored cookies on your computer in our domain so you can check what we stored. Due to security reasons we are not able to show or modify cookies from other domains. You can check these in your browser security settings.
These cookies collect information that is used either in aggregate form to help us understand how our website is being used or how effective our marketing campaigns are, or to help us customize our website and application for you in order to enhance your experience.
If you do not want that we track your visit to our site you can disable tracking in your browser here:
We also use different external services like Google Webfonts, Google Maps, and external Video providers. Since these providers may collect personal data like your IP address we allow you to block them here. Please be aware that this might heavily reduce the functionality and appearance of our site. Changes will take effect once you reload the page.
Google Webfont Settings:
Google Map Settings:
Google reCaptcha Settings:
Vimeo and Youtube video embeds:
The following cookies are also needed - You can choose if you want to allow them:
