This profile is in active compilation — some details are awaiting a cited source.

Farewell is a DIY live-music room, bar, and coffee counter at 6515 Stadium Drive in the Leeds industrial district on Kansas City’s east side, opened in 2018 by a crew of local promoters after the closure of Rollerdog on Troost. In 2023 the operation added Howdy, an all-ages sister room next door; between the two spaces they book roughly 250 shows a year, mostly punk, hardcore, metal, indie, and hip hop, with door money going almost entirely to the bands.

Description

Farewell is an independent live-music room, bar, and coffee counter at 6515 Stadium Drive, in the Leeds industrial district on Kansas City’s east side — a stretch of warehouses and rail spurs rather than an entertainment strip. The operation began in 2018, when a crew of local promoters displaced by the closure of Rollerdog on Troost convinced a landlord to lease them a building that had no running water, no sewer, and no heat, with power that worked about half the time. They started booking shows immediately and rebuilt the building around the calendar, including a collapsed roof and bathrooms brought up to code.1

In 2023 the same operation opened Howdy, an adjoining all-ages room. The two rooms split the audience by license rather than by genre: Howdy takes the all-ages punk and metal shows, while the Farewell side runs as a licensed bar for adult crowds. Across both, the operation books on the order of 250 shows a year.2

The venue’s economics are explicitly non-commercial by local-venue standards — pay-what-you-can pricing at the door and near-total pass-through of door money to performers, including small touring acts.12 Local coverage frames it as one of the few dedicated DIY rooms in the metro operating with a liquor license and a code-compliant building rather than as a house show.

Programming

  • Genres: alternative, hardcore, hip hop, indie, metal, and punk rock; touring DIY circuit acts alongside Kansas City bands.3
  • Volume: approximately 250 shows a year across Farewell and Howdy combined.2
  • All-ages: Howdy exists specifically to carry all-ages bills, which the licensed Farewell room cannot.2
  • Door: pay-what-you-can; near-total door pass-through to bands.12
  • Non-music: benefit shows and community events. “ — recurring series not itemized in a first-party source this pass.

The room

Two adjoining spaces in a repurposed industrial building. Farewell is the licensed bar room and also operates a coffee counter; Howdy is the all-ages room next door, added in 2023.12 The building was taken on in derelict condition in 2018 and rehabbed incrementally by the operators, one of whom worked as a private contractor — roof rebuild, plumbing, and code work were done in-house over several years.1

Published capacities, stage dimensions, and PA specifications for either room were not located in a first-party source during this pass. “

History

Farewell traces directly to the closure of Rollerdog, a DIY space on Troost Avenue; the crew that had been booking there found the Stadium Drive building and opened in 2018.1 Max Popoff located the building and has the longest tenure of the operators, running the venue with Shayne Carpathia and Deano Erickson as of KCUR’s 2022 profile.1

The venue was documented in 2022 by KCUR as a DIY punk club in the middle of the city’s industrial sprawl, at a point when the operators were describing the project as an attempt to gain institutional legitimacy — licensing, code compliance, a functioning bar — without losing the informal character the crew had built over the preceding decade.1 Howdy followed in 2023.2

Sources

Footnotes

  1. KCUR (NPR, Kansas City) — “Welcome to Farewell, a DIY punk club in the middle of Kansas City’s industrial sprawl” (August 6, 2022) — asserts: Farewell is a cafe, bar, and live music venue in the Leeds industrial district; started in 2018 after the closure of Rollerdog on Troost; Max Popoff runs the venue, coffee shop, and newly licensed bar with Shayne Carpathia and Deano Erickson; Popoff found the building and has been there longest; his private-contracting background drove repairs including rebuilding a collapsed roof and bringing bathrooms to code; the space was leased with no running water, sewer, or heat and only partial power; nearly all door profit is given to the bands; Popoff quoted on seeking legitimacy while preserving the DIY character. ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6 ↩7 ↩8

  2. P2Bars — “Farewell Kansas City MO: The Essential DIY Live Music Venue and Community Safe Space” — asserts: Howdy opened as an all-ages sister space next door in 2023; the Howdy side hosts all-ages punk and metal events while the Farewell side runs a full bar for adults; roughly 250 shows a year across both spaces; pay-what-you-can model. Secondary local write-up, used with the KCUR profile rather than instead of it. ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6 ↩7

  3. Indie on the Move — venue profile, Farewell KCMO — asserts: address 6515 Stadium Drive, Kansas City, MO 64129; phone (816) 500-4552; website farewellcafe.com; all-ages venue booking alternative, hardcore, hip hop, indie, metal, and punk rock. Booking directory, used for address/phone/genre only — not for operating status and never as website:. ↩

See also

Categories

On the record — ks.city/registry/farewell-howdy · record updated 2026-08-13