Gully Boys and Skating Polly

Name: Gully Boys and Skating Polly
Start: 2025-03-06T20:00:00-06:00
Location: The Maintenance Shop

Schedule

Thu, 06 Mar, 2025 at 08:00 pm

UTC-06:00

Location

The Maintenance Shop | Ames, IA

Gully Boys and Skating Polly (rock / alt-indie / ugly pop)
Thursday, March 6 | 8PM | $18 ($14 w/ ISU Student ID)
For fans of: No Doubt, Hole, Babes in Toyland, Bikini K*ll, Bad Bad Hats
GULLY BOYS
The Gully Boys origin story plays out like the perfect domino effect. While sorting vintage clothes in a Minneapolis-area thrift store in 2016, Kathy Callahan (she/her) shared her dream of becoming a vocalist with their co-worker, Nadirah McGill (they/them). After encouraging a friend from middle school, Natalie Klemond (she/her), to join the trio on bass, Nadi picked up a pair of drumsticks and counted off a cover of Best Coast’s “Girlfriend.” Gully Boys had officially been born.
Having to master their instruments on the fly, the band's sound grew quickly – taking inspiration from 90's icons like No Doubt, Garbage, and Hole. After 2 years of relentless gigging, Gully Boys released a collection of demos, Not So Brave, in 2018, earning Best New Band honors from their hometown City Pages and sharing the stage with everyone from The Hold Steady to Third Eye Blind. The band’s Phony EP arrived in late 2019 right as the live music industry came to a screeching halt. Inspired by this break in the action, the band started working with Zach Zurn at Carpet Booth Studio and added lead guitarist Mariah Mercedes. They released their first produced EP Favorite Son in 2021, followed by singles “See You See” (2022) and “Optimist” (2023).
Throughout this aggressive release schedule, the band has continued gigging - appearing at official SXSW showcases and playing iconic stages across Minnesota, including First Avenue’s main stage, and across the nation, touring with artists Nova Twins, Motion City Soundtrack, Destroy Boys, and Bad Bad Hats. With a recent trip to Audiotree and a debut LP in pre-production, Gully Boys have no plans to slow down.
SKATING POLLY
Fusing elements of alt-rock with classic D.I.Y. punk and indie pop, savvy Oklahoma sibling band Skating Polly found international exposure through rigorous touring, earning both critical acclaim and indie rock scene support. Formed when stepsisters Kelli Mayo and Peyton Bighorse were just 9 and 13, Skating Polly has channeled their chameleonic musicality into a sound they call “ugly-pop” – unruly and subversive and wildly melodic. Joined by Kelli’s brother Kurtis Mayo on drums in 2017, the band has collaborated with icons like X’s Exene Cervenka and Beat Happening’s Calvin Johnson, toured with Babes In Toyland, and starred as the subject of an acclaimed feature-length documentary.
Their latest album, Chaos County Line, the follow-up to 2018’s The Make It All Show, sees Skating Polly’s songs journey from art-punk to noise-rock to piano-driven power-pop, with the band matching that musical complexity with a sharply honed narrative voice that manifests in countless forms (ultra-vivid poetry, diary-like confession, fearlessly detailed storytelling, etc.). Not only the outcome of their constant growth as songwriters, Chaos County Line’s scope and depth has much to do with Skating Polly’s newly heightened clarity of vision.
Whether they’re opening up about matters internal (identity, disassociation, unhealthy coping mechanisms) or external (obsession, deception, gaslighting), Skating Polly imbue that outpouring with an unfettered emotional truth. Over the course of its 18 kaleidoscopic tracks, Chaos County Line embraces the kind of combustible emotionality that comes from fully uncompromised self-expression.