Downtown Boys

Emma Goldman, the pioneering feminist and anarchist activist, is the widely attributed author of the saying "If I can't dance, I don't want to be in your revolution." While there is some question of Goldman's actually saying it, if she did, she would almost certainly get along well with Downtown Boys, a six-piece multiracial, gender-integrated, bilingual rock band from Providence, Rhode Island that plays fierce but joyous punk rock with blazing energy, howling saxophones, and breakneck rhythms guaranteed to start a pogo frenzy on the dancefloor. Downtown Boys were formed by vocalist Victoria Ruiz and guitarist Joey De Francesco, who met when they were both working at a luxury hotel in Providence -- she as a customer service representative, he in the room service department. In his spare time, De Francesco was also a labor organizer, helping the mostly Dominican employees at the hotel get better working conditions and more equitable pay. Joey also played with an activist marching band, What Cheer? Brigade, and when he quit his job at the hotel in protest, he brought the band along with him, and the video of their small but enthusiastic demonstration eventually racked up over 4,800,000 views online.