The Lumberjack



Students Serving The Cal Poly Humboldt Campus and Community Since 1929

Tag: Shows

  • Destroy Boys and Margaritas Podridas rock the Gutswurrack

    Destroy Boys and Margaritas Podridas rock the Gutswurrack

    By Ollie Hancock and Kiana Znika

    In masks and makeup, showgoers shook the barrier, moshed, and crowd surfed to queer punk anthems to kick off the Halloweekend in an alternative safe space. Destroy Boys, and Margaritas Podridas filled the Gutswurrak with noise on Oct. 28 with songs about radical self-love and systemic defiance. The show was free to attend and hosted by Cal Poly Humboldt as part of the second annual SAC Halloween Bash. 

    Destroy Boys were excited about the accessibility of their set, as it was their first college show. 

    “Shows are so expensive to put on, and there’s so many people to pay,” the band’s guitarist Violet Mayugba explained. “We try to make our ticket prices as low as possible, but we rarely get an opportunity to do something like this where the funds are there like the promoter is a college.”

    As the opener, the Mexican punk band Margaritas Podridas exhilarated the crowd. Lead singer Carolina Enriquez filled the venue with her scream grunge vocals, sporting fairy wings, and a princess crown. They struck passion in the crowd with their recently released single, “No Quiero ser Madre,” a pro-abortion anthem. The crowd was surging and barely contained by the barrier by the end of their show.

    Destroy Boys walked out to a frenzied crowd. For this Halloween show, they acted out a religious skit in which Mayugba, dressed as the devil, fought over the soul of lead vocalist and guitarist Alexia Roditis, dressed as a nun. 

    The show was preaching to the choir, the choir being a mostly queer cop-hating crowd who sang along to anti-cop lyrics throughout the show.

    The band explains they’ve received a lot of LGBT support within the punk scene, their bassist David Orozco stating, “If you’re in a punk scene where they care about if you’re queer or not, that’s not punk.”

    Roditis enthralled fans with crowd interaction, jumping down from the stage to run along the barrier more than once during the show.  In their asides between songs, they preached radical self-love and acceptance, a message embedded in their music. Their shows reflect the same values; Roditis orchestrated a fems-only pit and encouraged the crowd to confront any abusive behavior. 

    The band hopes to inspire their young fans to find their own unique voice and be themselves.

    “Do what you want to do, as much as you can, without hurting people,” they explained. “That can go into being queer, being trans, dressing a certain way. Do whatever it is you want to do. You can’t fuck up your own heart.”

    The band is growing out of their diss track punk roots and towards more narrative songwriting that tackles bigger, philosophical topics. 

    “I used to write more about my personal experiences, but I’ve kind of wanted to stray away from that,” Roditis said. “I’m becoming a different songwriter.”

    Recently signed to Hopeless Records in 2021, the band is excited to be working on a new album with two songs already done. Roditis said they don’t expect to be fully done with writing diss songs but are looking forward to potentially writing a nice love song for Destroy Boys one day.

  • “13 Reasons Why” review

    “13 Reasons Why” review

    By Liam Olson

    The first two episodes of “13 Reasons Why”, “Tape 1, Sides A and B” are a strong and well done start to the story of high schooler Hannah Baker. What makes this show so great is the diverse cast of characters, well thought-out plot, and emotional and convincing acting. “Tape 1, Sides A and B” is so heart wrenching and intriguing, it will keep audiences pressing play to find out each reason why.

    The Netflix show “13 Reasons Why” was released on March 31. The show is adapted from the young adult book, “13 Reasons Why” which was written by Jay Asher. The show was created by Brian Yorkey and the first two episodes were directed by Tom McCarthy. Another well-known public figure who had a hand in the making of the show is Selena Gomez as an executive producer.

    The show’s engaging and thorough plot is one of the many reasons this show is so great. The show follows along each of Hannah’s reasons for committing suicide, but shows some of them out of order causing some differentiation from the book. Furthermore, while the book only goes into the tapes and each reason why Hannah ended her life, the show expands beyond that. It explains how the characters are reacting to Hannah’s suicide, such as her parents searching for the reasons Hannah ended her life and her friend’s interactions with people who are on the tapes Hannah left behind.

    “13 Reasons Why” begins with Hannah’s friend, Clay Jensen, finding a package at his door full of cassette tapes and a map. Clay puts the first cassette tape into his parents’ cassette player and begins to listen. He is shocked to hear the voice of his friend Hannah Baker who ended her own life not long ago. The recording of Hannah tells Clay that the set of tapes contains the 13 people who influenced her decision to take her own life, one side for each person, and that everyone who is on these tapes must listen to all 13 tapes. Not only does each person have to listen to the tapes but they must pass it on to the person after them on the tapes. Also, if one person refuses to pass on the tapes or refuses to listen to them, then a person Hannah entrusted with a second set of the tapes will release them publicly. After hearing the instructions, Clay begins to follow the tapes and find out the answers to why his friend ended her life.

    One of the reasons that “13 Reasons Why” is such a powerful show is the fact that it brings awareness to issues such as bullying, suicide, and other issues that are prevalent in the dark side of high school social culture. In the first two episodes alone, the viewer learns that one of Hannah’s classmates cyber bullied her and that one of her close friends betrayed her and isolated Hannah from her peers. This is just the beginning to the bullying that Hannah Baker experienced.

    Another reason why the show is so amazing is the wide variety of characters throughout the show. Even though there are many characters within the show, it does an amazing job at introducing each character and gives the audience enough background and time to understand each character. Some of these characters include Hannah Baker’s grieving parents, played by Kate Walsh and Bryan d’Arcy James, Clay’s calm and collected friend Tony, played by Christian Navarro, and popular girl and Hannah’s former friend Jessica played by Alisha Boe.

    With so many actors and actresses in the show, all of them gave outstanding performances but it is best to focus on the performances of the actors who play two main characters, Clay and Hannah.

    Dylan Minnette does a phenomenal job of bringing Clay Jensen to life. He perfectly captures the lost and confused feelings that Clay has after finding out that he is one of the 13 reasons why Hannah chose to end her life. In one scene, Minnette was able to show the mixed emotions Clay was feeling while he was riding his bike listening to one of Hannah’s tapes.

    The one person who by far has an outstanding performance in the show is Katherine Langford as Hannah Baker. Langford marvelously narrates the tapes explaining the tragedy contained in each one. Not only that but she perfectly captures the emotions Hannah feels after being betrayed by her close friend.

    “13 Reasons Why”, “Tape 1, Sides A and B” are an amazing start to the tragic and heart wrenching story of Hannah Baker. With outstanding acting, interesting plot, and a wide variety of characters, “13 Reasons Why” will keep audiences wanting to press play to find out each reason.