Skating Polly at Omeara, 20 Jan 2024
Over the weekend, I attended the coolest – and loudest – family reunion ever.
Oklahoma’s alternative rock three-piece Skating Polly graced London with their presence for the first time since 2018 on Saturday, bringing ardent fans of all ages to Omeara in Southwark. With support from the infectious dreampop of Half Happy, the group packed the mid-sized venue with frenetic energy from start to finish.
Step-siblings Kelli Drew Mayo and Peyton McKenna Bighorse were just kids experimenting with their parents’ instruments in their Oklahoma childhood home when they formed Skating Polly in 2009. Since their drummer and (step-)brother Kurtis Lee Mayo joined the official lineup in 2017, they have released two albums – the latest of which, Chaos County Line, was released last summer and is “[their] favorite thing [they’ve] ever done”.
I’m still not really sure what “bubblegrunge” is, but I’m fairly certain Skating Polly is its embodiment: one-third pop, half punk, the remainder something indescribable of their own making. Bass-driven, sardonic, and utterly danceable, their set on Saturday was a masterclass in how to keep listeners enraptured with expert dynamic control. Mellow verses laden with sweet, pitch-perfect harmonies could veer sharply into explosive choruses on a dime and rip through every particle of matter in the room. Such was the case on “Little Girl Blue and the Battle Envy”, when the crowd began singing along not three notes into the bassline and hung onto every word. This didn’t go unnoticed.
“You took our crying-onstage-together-out-of-happiness virginity,” Mayo exclaimed afterwards, teary-eyed, between sips of water.
During their hour-long set, Mayo and Bighorse traded off frontwoman duties as well as bassist and guitarist duties. They demonstrated their distinct vocal talents on alternate songs, with Mayo’s youthful, raspy tone rounded out by Bighorse’s lower, more soulful one. Though Bighorse’s stage presence is a bit more subdued than Mayo’s, “Louder in Outer Space” gave her a chance to really flaunt her belting chops.
By contrast, Mayo is your textbook air-kicking, hair-flipping riot grrrl rocker for whom playing guitar is a form of gymnastics. She had total command of the room when in the driver’s seat. In one instance during “They’re Cheap (I’m Free)”, she shot a maniacal, wide-eyed grin to the audience, who immediately sang what they were wordlessly asked to: “Da-da-da-da-a-da-da-da-da-ah!” Perhaps the most memorable moment of the show was during that very song, when she confidently surfed the crowd while absolutely ripping on the guitar, á la St. Vincent – whose signature Ernie Ball model she happened to be wielding throughout. The drama of it, the effortlessness of it, blew everyone away.
It was obvious that this show, like the many others they’ve done, was a labor of love. They lugged their own gear through the crowd before their set and swapped instruments between songs with ease. (“There’s no money in this job!” Kelli joked during their first guitar switcharoo.) Above all else, though, the familial bonds between the three bandmates were visible throughout. Mayo and Bighorse smiled and giggled at one another in the rare occasion of a mistake. Before playing their encore, “Perfume for Now” (which they settled on after stumbling, unrehearsed, halfway through another song and then ditching it) – Mayo asked Bighorse if had any final words for London. Instead, a smiling Bighorse burst into tears. “Cry, cry,” Mayo reassured her. “It’s a good space for that.”
In spite of the tears, Skating Polly finished the set with a bang, leaving the room abuzz with the same vivacity they clearly bring with them everywhere they go. Sharing space with them and their fans truly felt like a family affair – a warm, welcoming atmosphere where it was alright to cry, to dance, to scream, or all three at once. I am a proud newcomer to the Skating Polly family, and I am grateful to them for making my weekend all the more special.
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