Iowa musician Courtney Krause, photographed in 2021 while performing at the M-Shop. Photo by Sam Battaglieri
Nov/Dec 2024 (Volume 16, Issue 6)
By Michael Swanger
For centuries the relationship between music and stained glass has evoked spiritual experiences most commonly associated with sacred settings. For half a century, live music and stained glass have transformed the Maintenance Shop in Ames into one of Iowa’s revered artistic spaces where musicians and fans revel in the joy of secular music that transcends culture and time.
The M-Shop, as generations of musicians and discerning music fans will attest, is the way live music is best experienced … intimately. With its thrust stage adorned by a large stained-glass window, its pin-drop acoustics, and its audience seated closely to the musicians, the feeling of reverence, awe, and reflection, is what sets the M-Shop apart from other live music venues.
“For 50 years the M-Shop has been known for providing a good experience,” said Maintenance Shop Manager Jim Brockpahler. “A big part of that experience is the atmosphere.”
Pictured at the M-Shop bar are some of the students and staff who have helped lead the venue in recent years. From right: Aryana Bermeo, Student Union Board (SUB) M-Shop director; Jim Brockpahler, entertainment programs coordinator; Allison Talyat, SUB M-Shop director; Poni Okene, SUB special events director; Hassein Rife, former M-Shop head audio tech and former M-Shop student director; Dorothy Sargent, SUB vice president of administration; and Emily Durbala, SUB performing arts director. Photo by Christopher Gannon/Iowa State University, courtesy of the Maintenance Shop
In addition to the M-Shop’s vibe, its diverse roster of quality acts — many of which fly under the general public’s radar — has made it one of Iowa’s most respected listening rooms. Other than perhaps a handful of historic ballrooms, few live music venues in Iowa have hosted an array of musical styles including blues, jazz, folk, country, zydeco, bluegrass, reggae, rock, alternative-rock and hip-hop as successfully as the M-Shop. Legends like Muddy Waters, Willie Dixon, Buddy Rich, Pat Metheny, Arlo Guthrie, Doc Watson, War, Tower of Power, Dick Dale, Gregg Allman, Uncle Tupelo, Smashing Pumpkins and The Lumineers have graced the M-Shop’s stage. Their willingness to perform at the small club with a capacity of 195 people is an important part of its legacy.
Legendary jazz bassist Charles Mingus played the Maintenance Shop in the 1970s. Photo by Keith Robert Wessel
Equally impressive is the M-Shop’s staying power, which is not an easy fete considering how often clubs that host live music come and go. A quote posted on the M-Shop’s website perhaps sums it up best: “When English folk musician Richard Thompson was asked how many clubs he played in the mid-seventies that are still around today. He responded, ‘One place in Dublin and the M-Shop.’”
Dick Dale (left), “The King of the Surf Guitar,” played two shows per night at the Maintenance Shop a few times during the 1990s, including on April 2, 1997. Photo by Michael Swanger
From housing machines, to music
Were it not for the determination of a handful of Iowa State University students in 1972 to open a venue for student activities in the Memorial Union, or the suggestion of a custodian, or the newly lowered drinking age in Iowa to 18 at the time, the Maintenance Shop — Ames’ oldest continuously operating nightclub — might not have come to fruition.
According to a 2014 story published by the Ames Tribune, Joy Boruff and fellow members of the Student Union Board (SUB) were roaming the Memorial Union in the fall of 1972 in search of a space to host musical and theatrical performances when a custodian noticed them trying to open locked doors. When they told him what they were looking for, he suggested a dormant room called “the old maintenance shop” that was filled with cleaning supplies, vacuums, a broken piano and busted tables and chairs.
“It was perfect,” Boruff told the Ames Tribune.
This 1949 photo shows the actual maintenance shop in Iowa State University’s Memorial Union before it became the iconic entertainment venue it is today. Photo courtesy of the Maintenance Shop
Soon after, SUB took over the space and its members rolled up their sleeves to begin the work of transforming the small brick room into an entertainment venue. Key among them were Greg Gantner, SUB director of programs and special events at the time, Larry Grant, Jon Haut and John Lee. Grant, Steve Jensen and other SUB members purchased a large stained-glass window at a country church auction for $150. The window was cut into two pieces; one onstage, the other which hangs over the bar. Gantner, according to the Ames Tribune, had spent time in Chicago and suggested the space be used to host blues, jazz and folk concerts, musical genres that were being “discovered” by young, white audiences on college campuses.
The Maintenance Shop in Ames is renowned for booking blues legends like Chicago bluesman Son Seals, featured in Iowa State University’s 1982 “Bomb” yearbook after having played The M-Shop that year. Photo courtesy of Iowa State University Library Digital Collections
“Model T” and “Old Maintenance Shop” were among the names being considered for the space, but during a SUB meeting on Oct. 17, 1973, the student-run campus programming committee in charge of events at the Memorial Union chose “the Maintenance Shop.”
An undated photo of The M-Shop. Photo courtesy of The Maintenance Shop
In December 1973 the M-Shop hosted a theatrical production of “Man of La Mancha,” before it officially opened on Jan. 7, 1974. The Jug Band would grace the M-Shop’s stage as the first musical act on Jan. 31. A performance by Chicago blues, slide-guitarist J.B. Hutto, from which fans had to be turned away, would mark the M-Shop’s first sold-out concert on March 29th.
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