There’s always a temptation in music, especially with relatively new bands, to talk about them in terms of those who have come before. And while Sacramento punks Destroy Boys make blistering music that is certainly heir to a fantastic lineage of punk from the Golden State and beyond, it’s probably more worthwhile to talk about the future – a future defined by bands like Destroy Boys, an ever-more-diverse cast of voices reinvigorating the timeless central ethic of punk. Formed in 2015 by the then-duo of Vi Mayugba and Alexia Roditis, they were joined by drummer Narsai Malik after the release of their debut LP, Sorry, Mom in 2016.
Playing Providence, RI for the first time ever, the band and a crowd of young people squeeze into Olneyville’s Fete Lounge, packing close to the stage. There’s live wrestling happening next door and the physicality of that spectacle, however, manufactured, seems to set a very real tone for the night of music in the adjacent room. Following sets from San Francisco’s The Umbrellas and New York’s Jigsaw Youth, the lounge is a powder keg fit to burst, and from the moment Destroy Boys take the stage there’s a nonstop cavalcade of jumping, moshing, and hands raised in abandon toward the stage. Roditis’ microphone doesn’t seem to be on during the first few moments of ‘Drink’, the opening song of the night, but a big grin breaks out across their face when they realize it doesn’t exactly matter because the audience is filling in, substituting electricity for sheer numbers as a means of amplification.
‘Drink’ was the second single from the band’s latest – released this year on Hopeless Records, Open Mouth, Open Heart sees them sharpening the knife’s edge with which they skewer parasocial relationships, misogyny, systemic brutality, and more. Mayugba and Roditis are writing songs that tend increasingly towards the political, the result of a painful series of years that have thrown into a mournfully-widening spotlight the cruelty and indifference that plagues life, particularly for people of color, trans and non-binary people, and other marginalized communities. This latest album is a powerful manifestation of the band members’ movement into their twenties; as it is for many, the more time you spend in the wider world, the more you experience a double-edged realization about the relative lack of agency people have in the face of established, monolithic institutions which negate them at every turn.
Make no mistake, though – Destroy Boys are indefatigable and genuinely inspiring, an example of a wider trend in this youngest generation of adults toward political action. Before their tour, the band put out calls across social media, looking for activists and mutual aid organizations in every city they’d be visiting to table at the events and engage people at the local level. Lyrically, the song ‘For What?’ denotes the band’s worldview as much as the album title itself, the point at which Roditis lets their rage come to the surface unadulterated in a closing deluge that stares in the face a government that has enough resources to take care of everyone, yet chooses not to – prompting the titular question.
Before launching into their shortest song from the new record, ‘Muzzle’, Mayugba, about to take lead vocals on the song about “not taking shit from anyone”, poses a telling question: “Who here has been in a circle pit?” A bit more than half the hands in the room go up. To the others, she says something to the effect of: “Good news – tonight’s your first time”. The veterans form the outline and faces new and old alike go spinning counterclockwise around the center of the room. A few songs later, during ‘Locker Room Bully’, the crowd unprompted goes back for seconds, quick learners that they are, whirling around to the rhythm of the call-and-response pattern the guitar riffs take during the song’s verses.
Apart from the political, Destroy Boys have always had a knack for putting into words a special kind of snapshot of youthful heartbreak. Perhaps the most somber moment on OMOH, ‘All This Love’ grapples with the defeated feeling of sitting alone, envisioning a fantasy of a supportive life while in reality, no one seems to appreciate what you have to offer. Such tales of longing and rejection dot Destroy Boys’ discography and their setlist in Providence, from the self-destructive pining of ‘Vixen’ to the wounded surrender of ‘Fences’. Every song the band makes is overflowing with emotional charge, and it’s impossible not to feel a connection to it, and the impact they’ve had is immediately clear – Destroy Boys packed the room, even though it’s their first time out here, even with shows in each neighboring state; quite a feat indeed and a very positive portent for the future.
The powder keg of the night explodes during the final song of the set, the impeccably named ‘I Threw Glass At My Friend’s Eyes And Now I’m On Probation’. It’s been the band’s perennial viral hit and finds Roditis abandoning their guitar and launching themselves into the crowd, vocals shifting between placative fawning and genuine disgust as they reenact a dialog with an older man making unwanted advances. Clambering back onto the stage they posture on the east wall in front of a map of the city, highways snaking up and down in blue LEDs – a fitting metaphor for how thoroughly the band has enraptured the city in only its first visit thereto.
Review and photos by Collin Heroux
