Destroy Boys Throw Down Rowdy Set at LA's El Rey Theatre
Straight from their performance at the first weekend of Coachella, Destroy Boys performed for a sold out crowd at the El Rey Theatre in Los Angeles, CA on April 18. The punk rock band, which members Alexia Roditis and Violet Mayugba formed while still in high school in 2015, hails from Northern California. After releasing their first record Sorry Mom in 2017 and their sophomore project Make Room in 2018, the band signed a record deal with Hopeless Records in 2020. In October 2021, Destroy Boys released their latest LP Open Mouth, Open Heart.
Fans lined up along the street and around the corner, waiting for the chance to enter the venue. Many were dressed in dark, baggy clothing with chains, making the security checkpoint a little more time consuming than normal. After entering the venue, audience members had the choice to stand in the General Admission floor area, or along the sides in the other GA sections. Fans mingled with strangers while they waited for the show to begin, all united by their love for Destroy Boys.
The first support act was The Murder Capital, an Irish post-punk. Their second LP, Gigi’s Recovery was released on March 25 of this year. The band consists of five members including James McGovern (vocals), Damien Tuit and Cathal Roper (guitar) Gabriel Paschal Blake (bass) and Diarmuid Brennan (drums). The band played both new and old songs and McGovern even managed to crowd surf mid-song with a wired mic at one point. Next up was Soul Glo, the Philadelphia hardcore band. While their lyrics were harder to understand for outsiders to the fandom, their energy level made up this. With four albums under their belt, the band had a plethora of songs to choose from. Each of the support acts helped prepare the audience for the performance that was still to come by the headliner.
When Destroy Boys took the stage with their very recent single “Beg For the Torture,” the crowd went absolutely nuts. Even though they had only performed it a few times before, the band appeared to be seasoned veterans when interacting with the crowd. The undeniable feminist punk band kept the crowd’s attention for the duration of their performance and were able to elicit a lot of participation with many of the songs. Members Alexia Roditis, Violet Mayugba, Narsai Malik [and David Orozco on bass] traded sides of the stage as they performed, allowing each one of them the chance to shine. Throughout the set, fans from the back of the room were crowd surfing all the way to the front, before being pulled over into the pit by security. Towards the end of the show, Alexia Roditis even managed to crowd surf, trusting their fans to respect them and keep their body off the ground. Based on the reactions of the die-hard fans at the barricade, it was obvious that this was one of Destroy Boys’ best performances to date. While rock is not normally my genre of choice, there is no mistaking the natural talent this band possesses.
Review & Photos by: Nicole Ditt
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