Wistfulness has more to do with I Wish I Could Skateboard than their name. The Boston-based band faced stagnation for a while due to the distance between band members — formed originally in Texas, the quartet has found it difficult to produce music when they’ve spread so far apart (half in Texas, half in Massachusetts). Taking on some new members for live performances, I Wish I Could Skateboard is heading on a mini-tour in support of their new EP, Alternative Lifestyle, featuring a stop at O’Brien’s  on 6/11.

Bassist Hannah Fletcher and vocalist Patrick McPherson have spent time exploring the impressive music scene in Boston, citing bands like Horse Jumper of Love, Funeral Advantage, and Strange Mangers as their favorites. The live music culture in Boston has impressed them, but it’s also left Fletcher and McPherson hurting for more: “Every show we went to was also a reminder of our own musical inactivity,” McPherson told Allston Pudding in an email.

I Wish I Could Skateboard’s 2014 EP I Appreciate Your Lack of Confidence dabbles in the same flavors of post-hardcore that bands like American Football and — in a nod toward using sentences as names — The World Is A Beautiful Place & I Am No Longer Afraid To Die. Sweeping, cycling guitar riffs and McPherson’s mournful vocals, particularly on “The Blood That Came From My Skin Was Dark Red” suggest a complex confidence in pain. “My scratches and scars/don’t indicate that life’s been hard/just that I made/some stupid mistakes,” McPherson sings matter-of-factly. The narrative quality of the lyrics creates a current that propels the instrumentation forward in calculated riffs.
Great White Tourist and We Can All Be Sorry are supporting I Wish I Could Skateboard on the bill on the 11th. And that’s certainly no random pairing — McPherson told Allston Pudding that Great White Tourist’s guitarist messaged IWICS on Spotify, asking if they were still a band. Upon learning that the two bands were based close to one another, a friendship developed and McPherson said Great White Tourist has been instrumental in helping IWICS find gigs around New England.

I Wish I Could Skateboard is playing a handful of shows around New England in June to support the release of their EP Alternative Lifestyle. Alternative Lifestyle shows that the band has sharpened their edges since I Appreciate… “#willyipcome,” the second track on the EP, bursts open way more aggressively than the easing in of their other songs. “I haven’t changed, I’m still the same,” McPherson wails over fuzzy guitar and crashing drums. The EP shows growth from the band and promises a great, guitar-driven show.

You can grab tickets for $8 here, and stay up to date on the show on the Facebook event page here. I Wish I Could Skateboard plays an 18+ show at O’Brien’s on 6/11.