Phoneboy @ The Roxy (05/16/25)

Photos by Caroline Sanchez

“Is there just one Phoneboy?” my roommate asks. “Three,” I answer, “And one Phonegirl.”

The four-person alternative/indie rock band from New Jersey is made up of Wyn Barnum and Ricky Dana (guitarists/vocalists), James Fusco (bassist), and Jordan Torres (keyboardist/vocalist). Phoneboy’s first and self-titled debut came out in 2021; I found them a year later, my favorite tracks “Nevermind” ft Justin Magnaye and “Roses” on repeat during my senior year of high school. Earlier this month, they launched their Heartbreak Designer tour with INOHA to promote their third album, Heartbreak Designer. Tonight’s stop is at West Hollywood’s Roxy Theatre, an intimate venue on Sunset where a lone disco ball hangs above the main floor and its flanking bar and seating area.

There’s a holdup getting into The Roxy: a teenager is trying to convince security that he will definitely not throw the papaya he’s trying to bring inside. [Spoiler: He doesn’t. But the fruit does make its way up the stage during INOHA’s, “Papaya Man.”]

INOHA is an indie pop band based in San Antonio, Texas, fronted by lead singer Keanu Bicol. Their setlist is a mix of ALOHA INOHA, their debut album that came out last year, and earlier singles. INOHA has an infectious energy, one that the crowd easily gives in under flashing lights. “I Should Have Known” is groovy and interjected with short and sweet guitar strumming. The two guys in front of me who came out specifically for INOHA, the ones who’ve never heard of them until tonight, and everyone in between is in for the vibrant ride that is “Seventh Heaven.” Riled-up voices ring out, “It’s do or die / Let’s turn this ten into eleven / And make a jump to seventh heaven.”

Between chants to “clock in” and balloons bouncing atop heads, Phoneboy appears. “Wayside,” the first track off of Heartbreak Designer starts and it’s a punch in the gut. Mounting drums, distorted guitar, and a back-and-forth tempo are overlaid by lyrics pleading for a do-over on something already gone. Then comes “Better Than You,” an infectious track about the elated feeling of knowing that a relationship is ending and that you’re going to get through it better than the other person. Jordan had mostly done keys for the band but the track, and the rest of the album, features her bright vocals too, a notable change from the previous two albums.

At The Roxy, the band is so close to the crowd that you feel like they’re with you –not playing for you from a carefully blocked-off distance. Phoneboy runs it back to their old tracks, the familiar choruses of “1987,” “Moving Out,” and “Roses” prompting cheers from long-time fans. They radiate a familiarity unique to friends who have grown together–the joking bits, special guest reveal (Red, the bear featured on the album cover), and unintentional synchronization when they get engrossed in the music.

The title track “Heartbreak Designer” is a floaty synth with vulnerable lyrics that slows things down for a bit. But Phoneboy is dynamic and doesn’t let anyone wallow in heartbreak for too long. Concert-exclusive claps in time with building melodies and high-pitched vocals singing “Oh my god, I’m in love / And I don’t know how long I, know how long I got” wrangles an almost maniacal laugh from my lips. It sounds like a hot summer, rolled down windows, and a fluttering heartbeat about to take off. This feeling only swells under the violet lights of “Talking to Heads.”

The next track is “Running Out of Time” and it’s becoming painfully clear that as the last song before the encore, we are running out of time. It’s a head-banging mashup with “OMG,” “On and On,” “Red Wine,” and extended instrumentals that demands its listeners –from dad-son duos to drunk couples– to move. The last keepsake of the night is Heartbreak Designer’s first single “I Look Alive.” It makes you want to run –towards something, from something, and sometimes with it. From the venue’s exit to my Uber and to my front door, ecstasy followed me.