![]() The lead singer Alexia becomes a blur as she hurdles across the stage. A mosh pit immediately starts, and it won’t disperse for the rest of the night. ![]() Upon the opening of “Beg For The Torture” there is an electricity that rushes throughout the floor. While I still feel like an outsider for not having kept up with the band as much as I once did, the heterogeneous crowd made it easier to blend in. There are not only the expected 16 year olds that are in the midst of begging their parents to let them dye their hair, but also late 20 somethings covered in tattoos and wearing every style of Doc Martens, all the way to middle aged men in suits talking shop crammed in the room. Instead I find myself lost in a sea of individuals all across their punk journeys. I figured that it would consist of a younger crowd that reminded me of those late teenage years I’ve just left behind. ![]() While I still enjoy their music, I’ve changed a lot from the initial time that I started listening to their music, and the doubt spread as I thought about what I was getting myself into. On the drive over to the show I contemplated what the crowd would look like, and a knot began to form in my stomach. Among these moments, it was songs like “Vixen” for their 2018 albums Make Room, followed shortly by “American River” and “Crybaby” that kept me around leading up to their 2021 album Open Mouth, Open Heart. Destroy Boys was there for me to scream along to in the shower, and just as quickly fading away when I needed to slow down and take a breather from the fury. While I kept collecting their songs in my monthly playlists over the course of the next few years, my interest in them would ebb and flow, increasing during moments of my life where I craved the intensity of pounding drum rolls and angry lyrics that you can barely understand. The more microphone screeches and shrieks competing with each other, the better. Caught in an unpredictable mess of excitement, anxiety, and pure confusion from navigating my own high school worries, I sought comfort in searching for music that could provide me with a sense of individuality and control over my emotions. I was all for the teenage angst and resistance that shines through from what you would expect from any band with song titles as such. I first stumbled across Destroy Boys when I heard “I Threw Glass at My Friend’s Eyes and Now I’m on Probation” off of their 2017 album Sorry, Mom during a time where I was on the hunt for angsty post-punk music. Tonight is so far from the El Rey I saw a little over a year and a half prior, and this change of scenery is just what I needed. A wave of exhilaration hits me hearing the utter chaos of the crowd in response to The Murder Capital’s opening set. While I’m perched off to the side of the crowd, I’m caught in the middle of the scene, veiled in cigarette smoke and the cross fire of people hopping over gates for one final drag before the sold out show begins. Leaning against the box office fence, I jolt at the initial booming guitar riffs and screaming that fling out of the front doors of El Rey.
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