In 1997, a Des Moines band played its first show with Corey Taylor in a building on University Avenue near Drake. That band was Slipknot. Over the years the building also housed Hairy Mary's Punk Rock Tavern, the Safari Club and, for about a decade, Lefty's Live Music, according to Iowa Public Radio.
Lefty's closed last December. On October 3 the room reopened as Strychnine Live Music and Drinks at 2307 University Ave., Axios Des Moines reported. That means the Drake neighborhood has two independent small stages around the corner from each other again. Earlier this year Des Moines had very few independent rooms of any kind.
The Room the City Almost Lost
In February, Iowa Public Radio ran a long piece on the state of local music. Its reporting said the city's independent venues had "shrunk to primarily xBk and Locals Bar & Stage." Lefty's had just wound down, and nobody knew yet whether its space would host music again.
The same story walked through how the city got there:
- People's Court closed in 2012.
- House of Bricks closed in 2015, and Lefty's opened after it.
- Vaudeville Mews closed during the early months of the pandemic.
- Des Moines Social Club followed in 2021.
- Gas Lamp shut in 2023 amid plans to redevelop its building.
- 80/35, the summer festival, went into indefinite uncertainty in late 2024.
Not much opened in that stretch. Wooly's arrived in 2012 and xBk in 2019, both counted in the same IPR timeline. According to IPR's November 2025 story, Lefty's owners didn't close for a crisis. After working ten hard years, they wanted to do other things.
Before it closed, the room held about 350 people and booked metal, hip-hop, punk, grunge and garage bands, many of them playing their first real shows. Former co-owner Erik Brown told Iowa Public Radio why he thought the room mattered:
"There's just a lot of young bands that I know are not really going to fit some of the rooms that are in town once we're gone."
Brown also kept a tradition at Lefty's. Every band that played got a T-shirt wrapped around a ceiling tile, and he estimated the collection topped 400 shirts.
Who Reopened It, and What the Name Means
Strychnine's owner is Jas "Jerry" Spargur, a local musician. Axios Des Moines reported that he kept the room focused on live music, refreshed the interior and added a cocktail bar. The name honors Jimi "Strychnine" Scribner, a musician and sound technician who was a fixture of the Des Moines music community for years.
The opening-day bill had seven acts: Bob Pace, Brother Trucker, Loose Gravel, The Darkhorse Mob, Absolute Power, Switchblade Saturdays, and Jacob County & The Damaged Goods. Doors opened at noon, bands started around 2 p.m., and tickets were $10 for either of two music blocks or $15 for both.
The venue's own site places it "in the heart of the Drake dogtown district." It lists live music through the week and on weekends, karaoke, cover bands and open jam nights. The bar menu runs from an Old Fashioned or a House Amaretto Sour to canned beers and seltzers, and there's absinthe service too. The site doesn't set fixed nights for karaoke or jams. For week-to-week details, the venue points people to its Facebook page.
November at Strychnine Runs Early and All Ages
The November shows listed on Strychnine's ticketing pages all start in the early evening, and every one of them is all ages.
Date | Lineup | Time | Tickets |
|---|---|---|---|
Fri., Nov. 13 | Allie Crummy, Day Ashworth, Brad & the Big Wave | 5 p.m. | $10 cover |
Sat., Nov. 14 | John Beere, Stranger Than Paradise | 5 p.m. | $10 advance, $15 day of show |
Fri., Nov. 20 | Backhand Blue, Alborn, Soulcage | Doors 5:30 p.m., show 6:30 p.m. | $10 advance, $15 day of show |
Advance tickets for the November 20 show cost $12.40 once the $2.40 service fee is added, and the venue's ZIP code is 50311. With a 5 p.m. start on a Friday, you can get a three-band bill in and still be home for a normal dinner. That's handy for anyone with a teenager who wants to hear live music.
Start times matter in Des Moines because of a long-standing city rule. Iowa Public Radio reported in February that local ordinances bar patrons under 21 from bars after 9 p.m., and that the rule cuts down crowds and prime-time slots for bands playing bar stages. The version the City Council passed in December 2015, Ordinance 15,432, lays out exceptions. One is for "designated venues" that book at least 100 live performances a year and have a dedicated stage, a PA and a lighting system. A venue that meets those criteria still has to apply for and receive an exception certificate from the chief of police. Once it has one, people aged 16 through 20 can stay until 11:30 p.m., while anyone under 16 can't remain past 9 p.m. Designated venues also have to check photo ID at the door and mark guests 21 and older with a wristband. Strychnine's all-ages November shows all start at least a few hours before that 9 p.m. line.
Around the Corner: xBk
Strychnine sits close to xBk, at 1159 24th St. in the same Drake neighborhood. Iowa Public Radio called xBk a 250-capacity room "just around the corner" from the old Lefty's. It also described xBk's Monday Night Live as a weekly free showcase for local musicians and said the venue mixes improv jams and poetry open mics in with bands.
xBk's FAQ describes it as an all-ages venue. Anyone who wants to buy a drink shows ID at the door, and patrons under 21 can't leave and come back in.
So within a block or two, the Drake area has these rooms:
- Strychnine, about 350 capacity under its Lefty's setup, booking multi-band bills, cover bands, karaoke and jams.
- xBk, about 250 capacity, with Monday Night Live and an eclectic calendar.
That pair accounts for two of the city's independent small stages. The other one IPR named this year, Locals Bar & Stage, opened in summer 2025 as a venue for growing bands and lists Wednesday open jams plus live music on Fridays and Saturdays.
Why a Second Drake Stage Changes the Booking Math
Another small room adds booking capacity in a city that has been short on it. Jordan Essy, lead vocalist of the Des Moines rock band Display Case, described the squeeze to Iowa Public Radio. Gas Lamp, Lefty's and xBk used to run around six shows a week each. Once rooms closed, he said, bands found themselves "competing with 50 other bands for the same night in the same slot."
The bigger stages kept growing over the same years. IPR's reporting covered Vibrant Music Hall in Waukee, a 3,500-capacity venue operated by Live Nation, along with Wooly's and the Val Air Ballroom. It credited those larger rooms with bringing touring acts that once skipped Des Moines. Wooly's sits at 504 E. Locust St. in the East Village, and it has November dates posted on First Fleet Concerts. Those rooms are where national tours land. The 250- and 350-person rooms in Drake are where a local band can work its way toward them.
Strychnine's site still says it plans to book national touring acts as well as local musicians. For now, its November calendar is made up of multi-band bills at $10 to $15, in the same University Avenue room Brown described.
Planning a November Night in Drake
For anyone mapping out a weekend near Drake this month:
- Friday, November 13 has an all-ages bill at Strychnine starting at 5 p.m., with a $10 cover.
- Saturday, November 14 brings John Beere and Stranger Than Paradise to the same stage at 5 p.m. Advance tickets save $5 over the day-of price.
- Friday, November 20 has doors at 5:30 and a 6:30 show for Backhand Blue, Alborn and Soulcage.
- Any Monday in the neighborhood, check xBk's calendar for Monday Night Live.
Strychnine is at 2307 University Ave., and the venue posts its shows on its Facebook page.
Neighborhood details like a reopened music room near Drake help explain how a part of Des Moines actually feels to live in, and that's the local context I try to share alongside the numbers. If you're thinking about the Drake area, Dogtown or anywhere else in the city and want an honest read on how it fits your plans, reach out to Christopher Lewis. Let's Connect.
