This Saturday, 15 Iowa bands hit the Hotel Fort Des Moines in the second iteration of the Gross Domestic Product concert.

The idea behind the show, put on by the Greater Des Moines Music Coalition, is to put together a large show in a nice venue, to hype it up, and to combine the marketing power and audiences of all the bands, creating a far bigger show than any one of the bands could support individually.

“We’ll get fans of just one or two of these bands to see many of them,” said Scott Kubie, executive director of the Greater Des Moines Music Coalition.

The show has already been heavily promoted. Kubie has been working with Iowa businesses and using word of mouth to advertise the show. In Ames, the radio station 105.1 FM Channel Q has been promoting the show, along with the bands involved in the show that are from Ames.

The venue structure will serve to keep the show running smoothly. With 15 bands playing more than six hours, the show can’t afford any breaks. To this end, there will be two stages running at once, eliminating downtime and offering listeners a choice of bands to listen to.

This show’s aims are different from the recent Under the Microscope concert, which was smaller, emphasizing development of the local scene.

“Under the Microscope is a cool project,” Kubie said. “[But] we try to make [Gross Domestic Product] feel a little more accessible.”

Gross Domestic Product is a much larger show. Last year’s attendance was 1,000 people, and Kubie hopes to raise that to 1,500 this year.

The acts run the gamut of genres, and there are no headliners – equality of status is another goal of the show.

Gross Domestic Product is intended to be a fun, relaxed showcase of a variety of bands – a very low-pressure environment for the nonhardcore concert-goer.

“I’d love it if someone who’s 14 or 15 makes this their first concert,” Kubie said.

Three Ames bands are playing at Gross Domestic Product: Radio Moscow, Poison Control Center and Keepers of the Carpet.

Radio Moscow

Blues is a genre considered dead by many, relegated to isolated bars and a few masters.

Radio Moscow, however, is a group of three young white guys playing the blues the way it’s meant to be played.

“They sound a little bit out of time, like they could have toured with Jimi Hendrix or something,” Kubie said.

This is appropriate enough, since frontman Parker Griggs gets his squawking wails from an arsenal of 1960s-era equipment.

He plays a Gibson Firebird, occasionally switching to a smaller slide guitar from the 1950s. Griggs is, quite literally, bringing the sounds of the past on stage.

“I’m pretty happy with the setup,” Griggs said.

Griggs started Radio Moscow in summer 2003 as a solo project, inspired by the sounds of Peter Green of Fleetwood Mac. He drew the name from an old record featuring an American band purporting to be a Moscow-based radio show.

Bassist Zach Anderson and drummer Keith Rich flesh out the band. Griggs is the driving force behind the band, writing all the songs himself.

Radio Moscow recently returned from a tour of the Midwest, playing bars and sleeping on floors. Griggs loved the lifestyle and noticed better crowds than in Ames.

“I think more people check out live music other places than in Ames,” Griggs said.

Griggs laments the lack of blues and classic rock in Ames.

“Every scene needs a little bit of the blues,” he said.

Radio Moscow has recently released a self-titled album, available for $10 at Hastings, 620 Lincoln Way, at ZZZ Records in Des Moines and at live shows. The band has finished recording a second album.

In the future, the band plans to stick to their blues roots, but will branch out a bit, experimenting with synthesizers.

Griggs said he looks forward to playing the Gross Domestic Product show.

“It seems like it’s getting a lot of hype,” he said. “It’ll be interesting – I think there’ll be a lot of variety.”

Griggs is a blue-collar musician, working to support his art. For the time being, he’s OK with this.

“I’m just following the music dream for a while. It’s what I enjoy most.”

Poison Control Center

This quirky indie-punk band has been an Ames fixture for seven years. Combining their distorted sounds with such varied subjects as Jose Cuervo tequila, Pierre Pierce’s assault charges and the Waco, Texas, shoot-out, the band defies pigeonholing.

On stage, they create a louder sound, breaking down any barrier between band and crowd with crazed antics and forays into the crowd.

This is Poison Control Center’s second appearance at the show.

“We had a blast last year – watching the other bands and getting to play to that kinda crowd is always fun,” said vocalist and guitarist Patrick Fleming. “I think DMMC is a fantastic organization and I’m proud of our scene for making it happen.”

Fleming is a fan of both Radio Moscow and the Keepers of the Carpet. He is upset, however, by Ames’ venues not matching up to the local talent.

“The bands keep getting better and better yet we still lack the places for them to play on a nightly basis,” Fleming said.

Poison Control Center consists of Devin Frank on guitar, Joeseph Terry on bass and D. Ephraim Curtis on drums.

Members frequently play alternative instruments, such as horns and saxophones.

The band has recorded a new full-length album, “A Collage of Impressions,” set for a release some time this year. Fleming was tight-lipped about it, but mentioned a few details.

“It is quite different, [but] I will say three things about it: all analog, strings and four songwriters,” he said.

Poison Control Center looks set to put together a fun, involving show. Check them out, and watch out for Pat’s guitar neck.

Keepers of the Carpet

There’s not much more indie than stealing discarded carpet from roadsides to insulate the abandoned hog shed your band records in.

The Keepers of the Carpet don’t spend much time involved in the local scene, focusing on developing their own sound. They have an indie-rock sound, accented with keyboards and trumpets, but aren’t afraid to let loose and wail.

This is one reason they’re looking forward to Gross Domestic Product.

“It’s gonna sound how it’s supposed to sound: loud,” said vocalist, guitarist and keyboardist Jordan Mayland.

The Keepers’ stage setup is fairly static. Entrenched behind a pair of keyboards and bogged down by a guitar and mic, Mayland likes to stay put. He doesn’t like to be detached from the crowd, however.

“There’s no access any more,” Mayland said, referring to mainstream bands playing on isolated stages. “The one reason I like to be above people is that I’ve got my two keyboards and guitar, and people bump the mic. That sucks.”

Besides Mayland, the band consists of Eric Moffitt and Rano LoVan on guitar, Dan Shea on bass and Jason Holland on drums.

The band is looking forward to the exposure the show will generate.

“I love playing to people that haven’t heard us before,” Mayland said.

At the show, the Keepers will be releasing a new single, “Crazy Things/Glued.”

As supporters of music sharing – they don’t mind if you copy their CDs – the tracks will also be available on their MySpace.