[ccfic caption-text format="plaintext"]
By Laura Drinan
Hometown Weekly Reporter
The name “Rolie Polie Guacamole” may sound like pure silliness, but parents at the Walpole Public Library were pleasantly surprised to discover that the children’s indie band is talented, upbeat, and hilarious. Rolie Polie Guacamole engaged their audience, taking kids on a musical expedition of brushing one’s teeth, riding the subway, crossing the street, and going on a dragon hunt.
The August 9 concert invited children of all ages to come to the library’s Community Room to enjoy the mix of rock and folk music. Rolie Polie Guacamole’s lead singer and guitarist, Frank Gallo, and backup vocalist and bassist, Andrew Tuzhilin, kept kids entertained in between songs with their humorous banter. Before beginning their song, “Always Brush Your Teeth,” Gallo wondered aloud what he should put on his toothbrush. “Put some shampoo on it?” Tuzhilin suggested, but the children shouted their disapproval.
“Tooth paint?” asked Gallo, but again, the children shouted no. Tuzhilin’s suggestion to put chocolate chips on their toothbrushes provoked mixed responses from the children. Finally, Gallo overheard one child’s answer and said, “Oh! Toothpaste!” and began playing the song about dental hygiene.
Gallo also asked how many kids knew how to do yoga. The children in the audience started doing poses like bridge and downward dog. Gallo instructed that for the song, he wanted every child (and encouraged the adults, too) to be upside down for the song before the band started singing, “I love to be upside down with my feet in the air and my head on the ground.”
The kids acted as praying mantises and birds for some songs, and even made a conga line as they weaved through the room pretending to be a subway train for another. Gallo also asked the kids to interact with each other, requesting that they find a friend whose hand they want to hold, as the next song would be about crossing the street. Gallo had children practicing looking left and right to an upbeat rhythm as he sang a reminder to always look both ways before crossing the street.
Finally, Gallo and Tuzhilin took their audience on a dragon hunt. As the children sang out “Let’s go!” when cued by Gallo, he combined storytelling and song to take the kids over a tall tree, through a smelly swamp, and into a dark cave. In the cave where the monster resided, Gallo and Tuzhilin made animal noises, wondering if they could be the sounds of the monster. After Tuzhilin made a dolphin sound, he humorously wondered, “What is a dolphin doing in a cave? Is it in a stream? Maybe it’s a freshwater dolphin.” But when Gallo made a monster sound, he sang for the children to run away, sending them around the room in a frenzy.
The Brooklyn, NY based band brought smiles and laughs to entire audience, teaching them that with the right lyrics and just a touch of silliness, any type of music can be aimed towards children.
