With the closure of Lefty’s live music in Dogtown and a series of other closures of similar music venues around Des Moines in recent years, some worry about the future of the Des Moines music scene. As smaller venues dwindle in numbers, a hole is left with few places for younger bands to cut their teeth.
Ace Tipton is a 2022 Drake University graduate. During his time at Drake, he was a member and president of social fraternity Phi Delta Theta and one of the managers of the men’s basketball team. Today, Tipton works at Flynn Wright as an insights analyst and is the bassist of the band Soulcage.
“It’s a big hit [Lefty’s closure], and even more unfortunately, it’s not just a one-off circumstance either,” Tipton said.
Des Moines has seen a great loss over the past five years, with Lefty’s being the most recent in a long line of venue closures in the 150-300 person range. Other closures have been the Gas Lamp, Boggs’ Hull Avenue Tavern and Vandeville Mews.
In other Iowa college towns, many music venues see large student populations at performances. However, Tipton says Drake students largely haven’t taken to the Des Moines music scene.
“We play Wooly’s and xBk [Live], and when Lefty’s was open, we’d play there,” Tipton said. “There’s not exactly a student population existing at those shows, like you’ll see when you go and perform in Iowa City.”
Tipton said a lack of awareness about shows may be a factor in low student attendance at these shows.
“In my time at Drake, it wasn’t really advertised as community events either,” Tipton said. “When there would be concerts happening, unless they were specifically hosted by the University, say, for example, the Relays Concert. … It’s not like they were sending out a newsletter to students, letting them know, these things are happening at Lefty’s or at xBk or Wooly’s.”
Max Green, a 2025 Drake graduate, performed in “yearn-core” band Munk Rivers during his time in college alongside fellow alumnus Izzy Marx. Green and Marx played bass and drums in the band, respectively, and have since moved on to their new band, Rutabaga. Since graduation, Green has been working at a coffee shop and playing music in and around Des Moines.
“In fairness, I know it’s hard to find the time as a college student to show up regularly to shows for reasons of time and money,” Green said in a text interview. “But I think there’s always room for growth there, as somebody who’s always going to be an advocate for my local music scene.”
A DIY, or do-it-yourself, music scene is where people do everything themselves, including starting venues, performing, and marketing their shows. These scenes often happen wherever people have space to host a sizable crowd, often in someone’s basement or garage. Many young bands tend to start in DIY scenes before moving into venues. Des Moines occasionally sees a house venue pop up, but the people who often are the lifeblood of these communities — students — seemingly don’t have the time.
House venues are one of the cornerstones of DIY, people getting together and deciding that they need a space for young bands to perform and “cut their teeth,” so to speak.
“I’ve always thought that Des Moines would thrive really well in a DIY-centered environment,” Tipton said. “It’s nothing against those venues either. Those are really great ways for people to learn, but I will say that in terms of the educational aspects of what it takes to put on those sorts of shows as well, the DIY scene can also be a really great way for bands to develop their showmanship and to develop their performance skills.”
While Drake may not play a big part in the music scene right in its backyard, Tipton credits his time at the University for teaching him the skills he now applies to Soulcage’s digital and in-person marketing.
“While they [Drake] didn’t really help as much in the actual ‘success,’ as it relates to what we put out on stage, and being able to play gigs and all that stuff, I do have to really give some credibility there,” Tipton said. “The lessons I learned at that university and in my time there as a student in marketing specifically have really translated to what I’m hoping can become a music career.”
