Ah, the joys of touring with other girl punk bands: Sharing makeup and back scratchers, putting time aside for lunch together, wriggling through caverns in St. Louis’ City Museum together. The relationship between Skating Polly and Massachusetts’ own Potty Mouth remains a tight but ever-growing one, and the love fest pulls into ONCE Somerville this Sunday (June 10) with Skating Polly’s newest member in tow.
Coincidentally, that new addition is Kelli Mayo’s brother (and Peyton Bighorse’s step-brother). Kurtis Mayo, who joined the group in 2017, rounds out the family-affair flair on the group’s new album The Make It All Show, which dropped last month via El Camino.
According to the girls, after recording their 2017 EP New Trick with Veruca Salt’s Louise Post and Nina Gordon, going back to being a duo felt too skimpy.
“After working with Veruca Salt and hearing how a full band sounded we didn’t really want to go back to playing just the two of us,” Bighorse tells Vanyaland. “We had been debating adding a third member for a while but were always reluctant until we heard how beefy everything could sound with that extra person. Once we decided to officially add someone there was only one person we wanted, so we asked Kurt!”
“Having a third member let us have two string instruments play off of each other and that freed us up to write more complex parts without having to cram a bunch of notes into one guitar line,” Kelli adds. “Layers are much more subtle and easier on the ears. The ability to have layers on the instruments like that just let the songs do so much more. That was the biggest appeal to me. Other than just always wanting Kurtis in my band, because he’s a damn musical encyclopedia!”
The “Classless Act” employs their bro’s full potential on drums over the new record’s 11 tracks.
“The evolution of our music always comes very naturally to us,” Bighorse explains. “We try to always do something new when we write whether that’s a new trick on guitar or drums or singing in a way that’s new and not quite comfortable.”
As for the next step, Kelli says that she’d love to do a “Skating Polly version of either full-on St. Vincent Pop or full-on Melvins’ Punk” — but in the more immediate future, a Polly-Potty collaboration might be in the works (“We’re talking about maybe doing a cover together!” Kelly says).
See the girlie action in full force on Sunday.
SKATING POLLY + POTTY MOUTH + EYE WITNESS :: Sunday, June 10 at at ONCE Somerville, 156 Highland Ave. in Somerville, MA :: 8 p.m., $12 advance and $15 day of show, 18-plus or under 18 with legal guardian :: Advance tickets :: Facebook event page :: Featured image by Angel Ceballo
