March 10, 2020
“We will try to make it a good time because that’s what it’s supposed to be: everyone having fun. Be ready to have fun,” said Sydney Dolezal, vocalist for Doll Skin. Dolezal sat around the table of the band’s touring RV before their show with drummer Meghan Herring and bassist Nicole Rich. Guitarist Alex Snowden stood to the side and behind Herring and nodded along.
The Phoenix-based punk band started their 29-stop “Mark My Words” tour at the Black Sheep on March 1 alongside local bands Cheap Perfume and Letters From the Sun. The tour is a final blow for the album “Love Is Dead And We Killed Her,” according to Dolezal, before the band releases their next album. The band will release new singles this summer, according to Snowden.
“[Our energy] depends on the show, and tonight it sounds like it’s going to be a really great energy,” Dolezal said. “So, we’re going to have a ton of energy.”
And she was right. The energy, from start to finish, was high.
Antics from the night started with Steven Huckaby, vocalist for Letters From the Sun, using the rafters to hang over the crowd during their set.
Jane No, vocalist for Cheap Perfume, performed on the dance floor, actively moshing with the audience, after shouting the message for each song, which ranged from “Don’t rape people” to “Don’t judge people for how much sex they have.”
Dolezal later repeated her signature move during “Persephone,” where she laid on the dance floor with her legs pinned under her and sang as the crowd surrounded her.
The night reached its peak when Snowden climbed on top of an amp and swung from the rafters, just as Huckaby had done to start the night.
Every moment increased the fever pitch of a show that ended with Dolezal saying that she wanted to do an encore but could not because the elevation was killing her.
Both Doll Skin and Cheap Perfume played their songs that call for people to stand up against racism. With “It’s Okay to Punch Nazis” from Cheap Perfume and “Puncha Nazi” from Doll Skin.
Their comfort with the venue, which they have played at before, helped put them in the right mindset for the show. The band worried about getting the transitions between songs down and remembering their setlist.
“I’ll start the wrong song at least once,” Snowden said.
Once they were on stage to a crowd that had been warmed up by intense, political punk, the show flowed seamlessly as Doll Skin spread their infectious energy that encouraged the audience to participate in the party they hosted, all without stopping to give directions to the audience.
Doll Skin’s sound has changed from where they first started seven years ago at a high school battle of the bands.
“The first album was just so organic, all of us just writing,” said Herring. They had enough leftover songs after “In Your Face” to make “Manic Pixie Dream Girl.”
“It’s just, like, we want to create so many different kinds of sounds,” said Dolezal. Their most recent album focused on a theme of revenge.
“You can follow the changes in our lives through the albums,” said Rich. Doll Skin will return to Colorado for a show at Herman’s Hideaway in Denver on April 3 and The Moxi Theater in Greeley on April 4.