Dance-Punk Salvation: Viagra Boys Deliver a Top 10 Show of 2025
Viagra Boys kicked off their current tour and ended a three week stint of sobriety at The Sound Tuesday night. Atlanta’s Black Lips got things going and the crowd sparked off a set to remember from their heroes Viagra Boys.
Any night that starts with The Black Lips promises chaos, and they did not disappoint. The garage-rock icons, who command one of the most dedicated cult followings in music, stormed the stage at The Sound and immediately set the bar impossibly high. They ripped through a raw, snarling set that reminded everyone in the room why they are legends.
By the time Viagra Boys emerged, The Sound was a solid, sweating mass of people. The venue was packed to the gills for this completely sold-out show, buzzing with a frenetic energy that felt ready to explode.
And explode it did.
From the very first driving bass line of Ain’t Nice, the entire room detonated. A wave of crowd surfers immediately rose above the churning mosh pit. This was pure, relentless, high-energy dance-punk from start to finish. The band was a tight, ferocious machine. Frontman Sebastian Murphy, shirtless and menacingly charismatic, prowled the stage like a deranged preacher, his energy mirrored by every single person in the crowd. The band was locked in, the audience was locked in, and the stunning light show pulsed with every propulsive beat.
The set was a glorious onslaught. The crowd lost its mind for the satirical absurdity of Sports and descended into madness for Troglodyte. But the night’s defining moment came when Murphy paused the chaos for a surprisingly poignant sermon. He spoke directly about unity, music, and tolerance, emphatically rejecting any and all forms of discrimination.
This speech flowed perfectly into the night’s grimy anthem, Worms. Murphy howled the song’s central thesis: we are all equal, and “the same worms that are gonna eat me, are gonna eat you, too!” a beautiful, disgusting, and profoundly unifying moment of pure punk catharsis.
Viagra Boys led a chaotic, sweaty, and joyful celebration. Easily one of our top ten shows of 2025, hands down.
