This is an edited version of the first of a series of posts by a long time Des Moines punk rocker about a location that housed a couple of the venues playing punk rock in our fair city. And I threw in a video he did about the location at the end.
Now Des Moines has countless venues for live music. Nice clean places with sound systems that work and bathrooms that don't have the scent of rotten flesh but the thing is none of them are a club house, a center point to a developing and evolving music scene,,, You see you didn't see Punk bands or Metal bands or even bands that wrote their own music in nice clean, safe and well organized clubs. No those shows were usually in venues in the worst part of town, with bathrooms that didn't work and often completely without security...
by Davo Wilkens
The History of Safari, Hairy Mary's and Lefty's
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| https://davoaxiom.com/chapter-01-safari-nite-club |
2307 University Ave was the location of 2 of the most important music venues in Des Moines, Iowa. Safari Nite Club and Hairy Mary's were not only this first venues to really open up to the idea of doing all ages shows on a regular bases but they were the home of the local music, a tour stop for countless national acts, a club house to those that hung out there and the room in which Slipknot cut it's teeth and got signed...
Just the first Mary's would be a novel in itself and I have to state from the start that if it wouldn't have been for owners like Tony, Shawn, Jake, Jeff, John and Fathead, I would have nothing to write about. They had the vision and often the martyr like precedence to forge ahead when any rational person would have given up.
Many would have to ask why write anything about the place in the first place. It was a dump, the sound system was substandard and crowd tend to be a little on the, well, let's say a little on the rough side. If you really did a count on average attendance at the club in the 12 years that it hosted the Underground Music scene it would be around 50...
Other installments of the series:
- Chapter 01 - Safari Nite Club
- Chapter 02 - The Change
- Chapter 03 - Summer of 96
- Chapter 04 - Axiom Promotions
- Chapter 05 - Shawn's Safari
- Chapter 06 - Club Bauge
- Chapter 07 - The second coming of Mary's
- Chapter 08 - The post Script, the last song
- Chapter 09 - It's Ain't Over - Lefty's Live Music
DaVo's Vlog #5 - A history of the venue at 2307 University Ave in Des Moines that is currently Lefty's Live Music. In the past it was Safari Nite Club and Hairy Mary's. Also live foot at Lefty's Live Music from Emily Davis and the Murder Police, Mountain Sprouts and Barnyard Stompers.
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