It was close to midnight on Saturday at The Paramount in Boyle Heights when two trumpet players blasted their horns from the center of a mosh pit during ska night. On stage, the headliner – East L.A. ska-punk band Matamoska! – had more than eight musicians packed shoulder to shoulder.
Before the group took the stage, members of Libertadores, one of the opening bands, took a moment to address a pressing concern.
“Free Jovan!” one of the band members yelled out to the crowd, which erupted in cheers.
Jovan Loera, Matamoska!’s saxophone player, was detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents in November, according to his wife, Patty Hernandez. A GoFundMe page says Loera “is awaiting a trial and possibly deportation.”
“It’s been hard,” said Esteban Flores, a member of Matamoska! who’s from Boyle Heights. “But I know Jovan would still want us to keep going. Jovan would be like, ‘Don’t stop because of me.’ ”
Growing up, Flores was a fan of Matamoska!, considering them part of the “Mount Rushmore of ska bands.” He joined the band when he was 17 years old, and now plays keys and helps manage the band in its current incarnation.
Since forming in 2000, Matamoska! has gone through multiple lineup changes, breakups, and reunions—constantly reinventing itself. What started with backyard shows in Los Angeles eventually led to gigs across the globe, from Costa Rica to Germany.
“Matamoska! has a whole discography out of print going back to 2002, and in 2025, this lineup is on album four of an entirely new discography. It’s the Ska Cinematic Universe, and people can’t get enough,” Eduardo Rodriguez, the band’s bassist, said.
Much of the group’s longevity can be attributed to its wide-ranging music tastes, which reflect the diverse culture of Southern California. While mainstream ska-punk began to fade in the late 1990s, Matamoska! emerged at a time when many of its members were drawing inspiration from a wide range of genres they grew up with, from The Smiths to Eazy-E.
Though ska originated in Jamaica in the 1950s, ska-punk took shape in the United Kingdom during the 1970s. It quickly spread across the Atlantic and found a home in California. Much like The Smiths’ music, which evolved from British roots to a global influence, ska-punk was embraced by Mexican communities, and L.A. took note.
“Mexico is always gonna be the older dad of L.A.,” Flores said. “What we saw in Mexico, we wanted to replicate that. Then it was a feedback loop where people in Mexico knew about our scene, and we would keep trying to big-up each other.”
As they became inspired by the music around them and what they observed across the border, similar bands such as Left Alone, La Pobreska and La Resistencia also emerged. Unlike the New York City post-punk revival scene, the L.A. ska-punk community developed into more of an ecosystem – where bands fed off each other for inspiration and members frequently collaborated across projects.
When saxophonist AJ Acden joined Matamoska! in 2019, his frame of reference was shaped by his parents’ love for No Doubt and Sublime. Although a self-professed “late bloomer,” the Inland Empire native came to love the East L.A. ska-punk scene.
“There’s nothing like the love we get at local gigs,” Acden said. “SoCal is such a huge place, and the ska scene here is so niche that I get excited to just play for someone new, even when we’re in town.”
Scenes from the Matamoska! performance at The Paramount on Saturday, Jan. 25, 2025. Photo by Alma Lucia for Boyle Heights Beat.
Ska night at The Paramount doubled as a time to show resistance five days after Donald Trump’s return to office. Long before Matamoska! took the stage, other bands interspersed their Spanish-language ska songs with fiery chants and obscenities directed at Trump, which the crowd eagerly cheered along to.
“The political thing kind of came after,” Flores said about their music. “With the Trump presidency, a lot of us started becoming a little more politically conscious. It’s more and more with the times. Now more than ever, we’re very much spreading the message and letting people know, ‘Hey, you know what? It’s going down.’”
Since Loera’s detention, Cafe Girasol, the local business co-owned by his wife, has hosted fundraising events to help cover legal fees. On Saturday, the cafe — set to close in February to “prioritize bringing Jovan home,” — held an acoustic pre-party before Matamoska!’s show at The Paramount. There, friends, fellow musicians, and locals gathered, offering a small but powerful glimpse into the close-knit nature of the ska-punk community.
“I grew up listening to Matamoska! Their sound has grown and developed so much over the last decade even,” Hernandez said. “From backyards to selling out venues like the Garden Amp, it’s been incredible. I am incredibly proud of them.”
Loera’s detainment left Matamoska! scrambling to cope with the sudden absence of their friend. The sax — an essential element of ska-punk — remains part of their ensemble, thanks to other musicians stepping in, driven by both the music and a love for Loera.
“We all believe in the vision, and at the end of the day, we always set the foundation of the band in friendship,” Flores said. “And our friend would want us to keep going. As long as we keep playing, we know Jovan’s still going.”
