Almost one year to the day, mollyT and I went to a concert by the West Village Chorale with special guest Sky-Pony, a rock band that threads theater and art through their performance. They do covers and originals.

When Mercury Lounge announced an early Sunday night show with Sky-Pony, mollyT and I were there.

It was nice walking down to the club when it was still light out. In front of CVS was a guy yelling out loud, “Gentrifiers get out of this neighborhood! We don’t need you! We don’t need you gentrifying this neighborhood! Get the fuck out!” I thought his cries would have more impact if he were standing in front of Marshalls next door but also, unless he grew up in the neighborhood, he was young enough to be one of the gentry.

The room was relatively empty when I got there and the openers, Lakes were setting up. The room filled up when they started playing and it looked like a lot of people were familiar with them and their music. From the looks of it – woman with guitar in front, man with guitar, man with bass, and man with drums and I was thinking that this was going to be another indie band and then I was pleasantly surprised when they started playing. They rocked. And not only did they rock but they rocked in a grunge style. They describe their music as pretty grunge on IG and pop grunge on FB and I think both descriptions are accurate.

Libby Winters is a stage/film actor and on drums is her husband John Gallagher Jr (or Johnny Gallagher), also an actor, who could really rock out. Alan Hewitt was on electric bass and Winters said he just came down from Frozen. The lead guitarist was very good and unfortunately, I did not catch his name.

Winters said she had bought her shirt at Marshalls up the street, which almost made me laugh out loud thinking about the anti-gentrifier.

The band covered “I Wanna Be Your Dog” and I liked songs “Sleeping w Machines” and “Name on the Screen.” This is another band that I will be looking out for.

Sky-Pony’s music is more pop/indie and led by actor Lauren Worsham and her husband, musician/writer Kyle Jarrow (keyboards). On stage were David Blasher (cello) and Eric Day (electric bass). Back-up vocals were by Katie Lee Hill and Jessi Suzuki. Since Worsham did not name the other musicians, I’m not sure if those named on their website were there – Kevin Wunderlich (guitar) and Perry Silver (drums). They also name Kristin Piacentile as another back-up singer.

Worsham started the night telling us that her voice was going and she would see how it does. She did miss one or two cues because she had not been to rehearsal because of her lack of voice. But she sounded great was singing right past the hoarseness. She was drinking bourbon for medicinal purposes. When she saw her brother, musician Parker Ainsworth, in the audience, she got very excited and even stood with him for one song while Hill and Suzuki took over (Fleetwood Mac’s “Save Me a Place”).

The women were dressed in white corsets and harlequin pants with pink extensions in their hair. There’s always a little choreography and a light show that accompanies them.

They covered Madonna’s “Ray of Light” and did their lovely ballad “Beautiful Monster” (“If you leave me, I will rip your face off – that’s how much I love you”). The audience sang the first verse for “Everyone Will Die” and later in the song, Worsham called out, “Everyone in this room will die. Every piece of shit in the White House.”

This is a really fun band to watch and listen to and I look forward to seeing them again.

By Carene Lydia Lopez