Spring Break at South By Southwest Music Festival is all work, play for Oklahoma band Skating Polly

AUSTIN, Texas — Many Oklahoma artists played multiple sets at the South By Southwest Music Festival, either hopping from stage to stage or sticking around to play backup — Chase Kerby, of Defining Times, backed up friends Daniel Walcher and Beau Jennings before playing his own set Wednesday night at the Buffalo Lounge, Oklahoma's music, film and multimedia showcase.

Skating Polly might set a record for Oklahoma bands at SXSW 2013. Before the event closes this weekend, Kelli Mayo, 12, and Peyton Bighorse, 17, will have played seven different shows, including a private industry show for Virgin Mobile on Thursday. For the Norman/Oklahoma City punk duo, the goal this year is to have their music heard by as many fans and industry people as possible, and absorb plenty of other bands' music.

“I just hope that we'll get new fans, that people will see us and hear our music,” Bighorse said.

“We want to meet as many people as we can,” Mayo said. “We've been walking around, seeing and hearing some bands. Yesterday, we met Lori Barbero, the drummer from Babes In Toyland, which was, like, a dream come true for me.”

Groups are similar

Barbero, who moved to Austin five years ago, played in the Minneapolis-based alternative rock band Babes In Toyland from 1987 to 2001, and Mayo said she considers the band one of her biggest influences. Barbero said she sees a lot of Babes In Toyland in Skating Polly.

“It's so great — it's very primal,” Barbero said. “I was thinking: I didn't start playing drums until I was the age of the two ladies put together. I was like, 26 or 27? What they're doing is something that's actually real: a lot of people don't even play instruments anymore.”