1889 August | September 2018

say wa?
Musician
A Lifetime of Music
Boat Race Weekend’s ties go way back
written by Ben Salmon
Alicia Hauff
Listen on Spotify
LOTS OF BANDS are centered around old friends from high
school or college.
And then there’s the bond that forms the core of Spokane’s
Boat Race Weekend. Drummer Jay Orth and guitarist/vocalist
Evan Kruschke first met all the way back in kindergarten. “I
complimented him on his cool lunchbox,” Orth said, “and
we’ve been best friends ever since.”
Fast-forward a number of years—past the duo’s middleschool
band Whizz*Bang!—and you’ll find Orth, Kruschke and
another longtime pal, bassist Collin Price, enrolled at Gonzaga
University, scrambling to prepare to play a coffeehouse show
in place of an act that canceled. The trio learned seven covers
in seven days and “made it work,” Orth said. That led to cover
shows at campus houses, which led to the group writing its
own songs, just for fun.
It’s still fun, but now these guys take it seriously, as evidenced
by Boat Race Weekend’s sophomore album, Near & Dear,
which is packed with muscular
guitar rock rooted in earnest
Midwestern emo, thoughtful
hardcore punk and the ambitious atmosphere
of bands like Explosions in the Sky. Where the
band’s debut—2015’s The Talisman—is a bit
faster and harder, the new one slows down and goes for a more
expansive sound, while lyrically tackling big life events and the
associated big feelings.
That’s the sound of a band maturing, developing and pushing
outward, even after all these years.
“We’ve grown as musicians (and as songwriters who know)
how to achieve the sound we’ve been striving toward,” Krushke
said. “We just love making music and sharing it with people.
Art and music in general is a powerful force for change, and
we hope to make music that people can connect to and form a
relationship with.”
16 1889 WASHINGTON’S MAGAZINE AUGUST | SEPTEMBER 2018