For the past year and a half, there has been an overwhelming amount of pressure building up; an uncomfortable amount of tension has been mounting; regular massages weren’t even enough to get the knots of tension out. There isn’t enough yoga, meditation, shadow work, or Tarot card journaling to get the sense of dread out (at least IMO). The Bay Area weather, too, has been feeling like we’re being surrounded by hellfire due to the inclement weather.
And to make matters worse: There is a sage shortage. Nothing was helping.
Every time I read about the lack of action for correcting gender inequality, the continuing fight for my rights as a woman, or how the world ignores missing Black women and girls, all I wanted to break something.
I want to have a full-blown, unapologetic temper tantrum. Like smashing something and watching it turn into tiny shards. Ashes to ashes, dust to dust. And in that whispy destruction, I yearned to feel relief and release.
There are tropes in pop culture where people act out in a fit of rage by throwing plates of spaghetti against a wall with glass shattering everywhere. If they’re in an office, we see a desk sweep where someone will shove everything on the desk onto the floor, maddened and frustrated.
What we’re really paying for is the luxury to demolish something without conscience or consequence.
Three of my friends and I made the venture to release pent-up frustrations at a new “rage room” in San Francisco, called Bay Area Smash. Rage rooms—a.k.a “anger rooms” or “smash rooms” — are places designed to break and shatter objects. These rooms are said to have begun around 2008 in Japan as a way to help workers ease their tensions. The goal is to use the smashing to de-stress and purge your anger by taking it out on an object.
The joy and privilege of the rage room aren’t solely breaking something. It’s really in being able to make a mess and not having to clean it up. What we’re really paying for is the luxury to demolish something without conscience or consequence. We were paying for it to walk away from the mess we created without dealing with shattered pieces of everything that was destroyed — you know, like a billionaire.
Once waivers were signed, my friends and I were adorned in a uniform for the destruction of fitted gloves, safety glasses, and hard hats. In the room awaiting us were 30 dishes, a car windshield, an old fax machine, dresser drawers, and a computer monitor. The exhilaration of taking a sledgehammer to the fax machine, reminiscent of the movie Office Space, is made very real for anyone immersed deeply in office culture.
Thirty minutes may not seem like enough, but it’s exactly the amount of time needed for four people to smash everything in the room and go searching for more. The windshield had nearly returned to sand by the time we were done with it.
Smash owner and Marin- county native Miguel Moises said he experienced his first rage room when he was on vacation in Miami. When he came back, he wanted the rage room experience closer to home and decided to open two locations. In January, Moises opened the first Bay Area Smash location in Fairfield. The second Smash location opened in October on Market Street in San Francisco.
‘Smash the patriarchy, fuck boys and stay sexy.’
“You’re expecting a rush of adrenaline,” said Moises. “You’re expecting thoughts that you’ve never thought are gonna come up and emotions that are gonna come up.”
To make the experience as personal as possible it’s suggested to bring in your own items for destroying. For something truly cathartic, Moises recommends photos or objects of your exes. “This is stress management,” said Moises. “You’re gonna see a side of yourself that you normally don’t see.”
At the beginning of our session, there was a jovial sense of play to breaking the items in the room. I giggled when I threw a plate against the wall or smashed a flying plate with a mallet, which I don’t recommend unless you enjoy glass flying into your face and arms. The room is Bluetooth equipped to play your own music and there’s a mount on the wall for devices to record.
Moises was not exaggerating about the emotions that come up. Around 15 minutes into taking a golf club to the windshield to the sounds of Bootylicious playing in the background, I found myself in a moment of rhythmic zenful rage. Any thought that entered my mind channeled each blow from a playful smashing until finally centering into actual anger.
The more I smashed, the more my feelings of resentment, angst, malaise, and melancholy swirled around from all that I had experienced even before the whirlwind that was 2020. I was over it — whatever that “IT” may have been.
Items for smashing come from private donations, thrift stores, and organizations that support stress management and mental health wellness. Moises explains once all the items are smashed they are then taken away for recycling. Prices begin at $65 for two people to $360 for 10 people. Smash sessions are up to 30 minutes long.
When my friends and I exited, we were sweaty and relieved leaving behind chaos and destruction. We signed a wall to commemorate our visit. I signed it with what made more the most sense in my endorphin-filled brain, “Smash the patriarchy, fuck boys and stay sexy.”
Bay Area Smash is located at 1005 Market Street, open Monday Friday 2:00 pm to midnight; Saturday and Sunday 10:00 am to midnight
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