A guitarist is happy but in tears. There’s a couple at the front cutely snogging away and the drummer has ditched his sticks and borrowed the guitar. Just another night on the Skating Polly European tour then.
The explosive, instrument-swapping Oklahoma trio – siblings Kelli and Kurtis Mayo and stepsister Peyton Bighorse – are fully immersed in their long European tour promoting their 2023 double album Chaos County Line (El Camino Media)
Tonight their self-styled “ugly pop” reaches London for a headline show at the compact Omeara venue. A pair of large red boots clomp into view followed by Kelli and her bass guitar announcing “we’re Skating Polly!” It’s like Dorothy got lost and swapped Oz for Lilliput.
Skating Polly songs are made for moshing. Songs rise and fall inspiring waves of frenetic dancing and fans ardently sing along. “Big boots” Kelli announces, “we’ve just put out a double record of eighteen songs – we actually have the vinyl with us finally! Its my favourite thing we’ve ever done!” That new double album dominates and they open with ‘Singalong’ and ‘Hickey King’.
They really rock on the dirty, bass driven fuzz of ‘Man Out There‘. Skating Polly are maybe not loud enough to make nearby London Bridge fall down but it’s surely wobbling as ‘Free Will At Ease’ gets everyone moshing. Before launching into ‘Little Girl Blue’ someone shouts “what you gottt?!” Well, what they’ve got is fantastic bass loops and Kelli’s sweet yet seething vocals reminiscent of the Hersh/Donnelly era of college rock. There’s a pause as the bass slowly bounces in the background and Kelli expresses her love, “it’s so so lovely to be back in London”. The audience then join in to sing the reprise of the first verse “I’m not going anywhere…” – why would anyone want to leave?! The moment is sweeter than the desserts around the corner at Borough Market and the band are visibly moved. Kelli gushes, “you beautiful, beautiful people – I love you…you made us cry. You took our ‘crying on stage together out of happiness’ virginity!”
Still emotional, Peyton takes over vocals for the pop hooks and breeziness of ‘Louder In Outer Space’. The rock returns for the gorgeous and loud ‘All The Choices’ from the new release followed by another new gem ‘I’m Sorry For Always Apologizing’ which is reminiscent of Belly. Kelli then announces “this is a love song, I wrote it when I when I was really young and people would keep asking me what it was about and I’d say…it’s about a boy!” and then breathes her coolness into ‘Pretective Boy’. The evening has been boisterous but kind and friendly throughout. There’s no negative edge to a Skating Polly gig. The dancing is again frenetic during ‘Nothing More Than A Body’ and a fan gets launched across the venue. Kicking Kelli stops momentarily to ask if everyone is okay. All is well and Kelli continues with the explosive killer bass on ‘Send A Priest’ summoning dynamic punk energy. Kurtis is singled out for praise when someone shouts, “give the drummer a raise!” but Kelli does a reality check, “there’s no money in this job!” and alternatively suggests, “buy some merch for the drummerrrrr!”.
There’s more crowd participation for the sinister and bass heavy ‘Hail Mary’ and enough time left for Kelli and her boots do some crowd surfing. Skating Polly reiterate their love for London with Kelli confessing, “we love it here, we always have the best time and London is one of our favourite cities on earth!”. Which would’ve been marvellous had it not sparked a debate in the crowd about whether South or North London is best!
Finishing with ‘They’re Cheap (I’m Free)’ and some chat about the hand embroidered merch Kelli warns people not to be a “cheap bastard” because they came to Europe “very broke”. There’s cries of “one more song” and the encore ensues. Kelli reappears cosily wrapped in knitted mittens and hat and they attempt to do a stripped back version of Peyton’s song ‘Not Going Back Again’. It’s beautiful and all the more absorbing for the way they stumble through it before Kelli finally gives up shouting, “never be spontaneous!”. So they resort to rocking the Omeara one last time with ‘Perfume For Now’ but only after Kelli buys time for Kurtis and his wayward drums by telling a joke about tomatoes which fades into the ether without a punchline. She also asks Peyton if she’d like to say anything to London but she’s still overcome with emotion and Kelli urges her to “cry, cry, cry its a good space”.
It has been emotional. Those red boots have seen a lot of action tonight. There’s a lot of love for Skating Polly, the bruises tomorrow will all be worth it.
Photos: Don Blandford
