Headliner Destroy Boys recently led a night of empowering punk music with support from Sasami and Chokecherry at 9:30 Club.

The San Francisco trio Chokecherry consisting of Izzie Clark (guitar/vocals), Scarlett Levinson (bass/vocals), and Abri Crocitto (drums) kicked off the Nov. 17 night with shoegazey grunge-pop vibes. The band released their debut single “Glass Jaw” in spring of 2023, and had quick success thanks to TikTok virality. The momentum kept up with singles “Around Around Around” and “Afterglow” — the latter single is on their debut EP Messy Star, which came out last October.

Izzie and Scarlett hit the stage giving off a goth/coquette crossover in their corsets, chains, and bows. The two frontwomen were so captivating to watch — at one point I felt like Scarlett was staring directly at me — but I bet I’m not the only person who thought that. They ended the set with my personal fave, “Mirror Mirror,” which is a step into hard rock with fuzzy guitars and screams, while still maintaining their whimsy, dreamlike sound. The ending divulged into a total headbanger, which totally emulated Mannequin Pussy.

Watch the official lyric video for “Mirror Mirror” by Chokecherry on YouTube:

Next up was solo artist Sasami, formerly of the band Cherry Glazerr. Sasami opened the set with her single “Honeycrash” from her upcoming album Blood On The Silver Screen. Sasami talked about her love for a metal kick-drum sound and how it makes her go “feral.” She then introduced her drummer, Diego, and she instructed the audience to yell “MAS!” to get Diego to play more of that metal kick-drum. Sasami said that one of her jobs as an opening act was to get the pit warmed up, and wanted to see the crowd get feral with her.

Sasami joked about DC having bad weed, and that she and Diego are from California where they’re spoiled with the good stuff. She playfully remarked that Diego was playing so well because he wasn’t high from the DC weed. Toward the end of her set, she busted out the French horn, which led me to discover she’s a conservatory-trained French horn player. She’s a musical powerhouse and, wow, she can make the French horn undeniably cool, and she can SHRED her guitar.

Sasami is going to blow up in 2025 — I can feel it. The way she bantered effortlessly with the crowd was so enticing. She commented how she felt like the crowd could be her best friends, while in New York the previous night, she felt like more of their “music teacher.” Sasami ended her set saying “DC, that was fun as fuck” and reminded the crowd that her name is Sasami that rhymes with “salami.”

Watch the official music video for “Honeycrash” by Sasami on YouTube:

Destroy Boys is composed of Alexia Roditis (lead vocals/guitar), Violet “Vi” Mayugba (guitar/backing vocals), Narsai Malik (drums), and David Orozco (bass). Alexia and Vi created the band in Sacramento, California, when they were in high school. Nearly a decade later, they’re on their fourth studio album entitled Funeral Soundtrack #4. Their previous albums contain themes of growth, self-discovery, LGBTQIA, politics, and gender. Funeral Soundtrack #4 is not a departure from that, but rather it takes these themes with a newfound sense of maturity and adulthood. In a Kerrang interview, Nick Ruskell writes: “This, then, isn’t so much a goodbye as the beginning of an era for Destroy Boys. They are older, wiser, ‘tired of being walked all over,’ as Alexia puts it, having learned a thing or two about the music business.” Their “left coast” punk sound has soared across the world, and landed at the 9:30 Club in DC for a sold-out performance on Nov. 17.

Destroy Boys began their set and almost instantaneously the crowdsurfing and moshing began. Alexia screamed “Let’s GO” at the start of their first song “Shadow (I’m Breaking Down).” There were lots of Doc Martens and chunky boots in the air as the crowd surfers flew towards the stage. Lead vocalist, Alexia, exuded cool-person energy in shades, a black suit, and a studded choker necklace. Their second song “Crybaby” is a punk-powerhouse, which sounded even better live. Their third song “Drink” has a catchy guitar riff that reminds me of early Arctic Monkeys.

“Plucked” is a scornful tune about wanting freedom of expression in times of oppression. “K Street Walker” emulates a classic punk style and clocks in at only one minute and 27 seconds. Alexia sardonically stated “This song is dedicated to anyone who still believes in the power of love” before playing “Vixen” from their 2018 album Make Room.

Vi and Alexia switched spots onstage and Vi slammed into the song “Should’ve Been Me” complete with head bangs and screams. After that, Vi calmly said “Hey DC,” which was met with fervent applause. Vi followed up saying “This next song is about not letting anybody else tell you who you are. I like who you are right now very much. This song is called Muzzle.” “Muzzle” had explosive energy with Vi whipping their hair ferociously while barking out lyrics. The crowd passionately chanted the line “You think I’m trash, and you think I’m mean” along with Vi.

Alexia announced “We’ve got two more songs” and the avered “Group activity time, are you ready?” Alexia proceeded to do a call-and-response bit with the crowd, where they made different sounds and the crowd was to repeat it. Alexia said “one last big loud scream” and the crowd went absolutely feral as the band began “Fences.” It’s impossible not to groove around to this one live. Midway through, Vi told the crowd “When this song kicks back in, we need everyone to JUMP!” Toward the end of the song, Alexia said “Fuck the patriarchy […] can we just live for fuck’s sake?” This prompted a girls and nonbinary identifying only mosh pit to close out the song and into “You Hear Yes.”

Watch the official lyric video for “Fences” by Destroy Boys on YouTube:

For the encore, Alexia came out solo and immediately chanted “Free Palestine and Congo, and Sudan, and Central South America, free Hawaii, free Puerto Rico. Free the very land that we are on because that shit is stolen.” Alexia followed up saying “in the next 10 seconds express how you feel about the political state of this country,” which was met with lots of screams and cursing different political entities and institutions. They said “I hope that felt good” and it most definitely did. Alexia went into an activism talk, where they pleaded for the crowd to “volunteer for Sunrise Movement, make art about it, join a union start a union, talk to friends, family, and neighbors, get educated about stuff you don’t know about, throw a benefit show — fascism is on the rise all over the world and HERE.” The speech ended on a hopeful note: “We can do this together. All the leftist leaders get assassinated anyways. Put out the fire that is this crazy fucking country. Have compassion for yourself and the very people you are organizing with. It’s not very ACAB of you to ostracize people for making a mistake.”

Alexia played “Piedmont” solo, and then the rest of the band joined for two random covers: Green Day’s “Longview” and Weezer’s “Undone (The Sweater Song).” The band laughed about it and said “We’re just feeling a little bit silly. That was not a planned bit, we don’t know how to play these songs.” Right before playing their classic “I Threw Glass at My Friend’s Eyes and Now I’m on Probation,” Alexia said with sobering seriousness: “If someone much, much older than you is pursuing you it’s because they can’t get someone their own age.” The song sounds like an internal dialogue debating whether or not you’re being manipulated, or being pursued genuinely, in friendship or romantically. It’s a perfect song to end with– one last chance for everyone to get their bottled up rage out.

Fantastic sets from all three bands. I wish them all great success in their future endeavours.

Here are some photos of Destroy Boys performing at 9:30 Club on Nov. 17, 2024. All pictures copyright and courtesy of Carolin Harvey.

Here are some photos of Sasami performing at 9:30 Club on Nov. 17, 2024. All pictures copyright and courtesy of Carolin Harvey.

Here are some photos of Chokecherry performing at 9:30 Club on Nov. 17, 2024. All pictures copyright and courtesy of Carolin Harvey.