For the last decade, Lefty’s Live Music has been one of Des Moines’ most reliable homes for underground sounds. The 350-capacity concert hall in the Drake neighborhood prided itself on welcoming all kinds of music, from metal and hip-hop to garage bands and even burlesque acts.
But as its tenth year draws to a close, the venue is preparing to turn off its lights for good. In a Facebook post, co-owners Anne Mathey and Erik Brown announced that Lefty’s will close by the end of the year.
“Lefty’s Live Music has been an incredible journey, one full of friendship, magic and music,” they wrote. “It is impossible to list who to thank for keeping our dream alive this past decade because it is literally everyone.”
Their message went on to thank staff, musicians, agents, tech crews, tour managers and the patrons who showed up night after night.
“Gather in spaces and connect. Hold each other close,” they wrote. “Though we might have unlocked the doors, it was the blood, sweat and tears of the Des Moines music community that breathed life and love into this building.”
Lefty’s closure comes at a time when opportunities for local artists to perform and grow in Des Moines are shrinking. Since 2020, venues that welcomed them, like Vaudeville Mews and Gas Lamp, as well as festivals like 80/35, have disappeared.
But Brown remains optimistic for Des Moines' local music scene, pointing out that Lefty’s was born under similar circumstances. He and Mathey opened the venue in 2015 after the East Village’s metal music venue House of Bricks, where they both worked, closed its doors.
“We got to talking like everybody naturally does about the state of the scene,” Brown said. “There was nowhere for these bands to go."
They eventually landed on a building near Drake University that had once housed Hairy Mary’s Punk Rock Tavern and, before that, the Safari Club — the same space where Slipknot performed its first show with Corey Taylor in 1997.
From there, they transformed it into the intimate, artist-centered venue they felt Des Moines needed. They named the club after Mathey’s three-legged rescue pit bull, Lefty, who quickly became its mascot. The dog had attended shows since the House of Bricks days and remained a fixture at the new venue until his death in 2022 at age 15.
While Mathey and Brown’s announcement did not explain their reasons for closing, Brown emphasized to IPR that the decision wasn’t sudden.
“It wasn’t like we woke up yesterday and were like, ‘You know what? Yeah, we don’t want to do music anymore’ — that’s just not true,” he said. “We started off saying, ‘Let’s put 10 real hard years into this and reevaluate.’”
When that milestone arrived, they realized it was time for the next chapter.
“I think we just came to the realization that we have other things we want to do in life,” Brown said.
The future of the building — and whether it will remain a music venue — is still uncertain. Brown hopes it will, but said the decision is ultimately out of his hands.
“I’m just going to have to let Des Moines do what Des Moines does,” he said. “And it always finds a way to do it again.”
Over the past 11 years, Lefty’s filled a crucial gap in the city’s music landscape, especially for emerging artists.
“It’s such an eclectic mix of stuff we do,” Brown said. “But we see a real gap, especially with hip-hop, with heavy metal, with garage rock — the bands that are developing. We get bands from Iowa City every week that are just playing in their mom’s basement, and it’s their first show they’ve ever done in a venue.”
He said the closing feels bittersweet.
“I just wouldn’t have ever planned that this is where I’d be almost 11 years later,” Brown said. “You couldn’t have told me that that’s what I would be doing.”
