As part of a local music scene as transitional as the inhabitants of the college town, Ames musicians have, over time, both gasped for survival and breathed easy with success. Bands that were huge locally only five, four or even three years ago, such as Junk Poet, 35″ Mudder and Grubby Ernie, have been largely forgotten as the educational assembly line moves the majority of local music listeners through and out of Ames in four to five years.

“Having been here for over five years, I can see there are a lot of trends,” says Aaron Hefley, co-founder of Bi-Fi Records. “There are cycles the scene goes through, lots of ups and downs. Unfortunately, I think we’re in a down period right now, but we were in an upswing as early as last fall when the school year started.”

But Ames hasn’t always been such shaky ground for local talent looking to pick up a guitar or get behind a microphone and play for an audience.

Five years ago

“It was a really cool scene,” says Taco, former guitarist for Bocca Saint, a Des Moines metal band that often shared the stage with Junk Poet and 35″ Mudder back in 1997. “We were playing out somewhere in Ames every week.”

Taco, Mudder vocalist Cory Brown and Grubby Ernie drummer Joel Nott together name at least four venues – Nott recalls “quite a few more” – that gave local bands a place to play nearly every week. The list that includes People’s and three now-defunct bars: Lost and Found Lounge, Friend’s Club and the Long Shot.

Mudder’s drummer Dave Egan was a bartender at the Long Shot, the bar that seemed to be the eye of the thriving Ames metal storm. Bocca Saint bassist Dave Baker, also known as Cornbread, was partial owner of the bar that was both hangout and venue for the metal scene.

“The Long Shot was always packed,” says Taco. “For us it was a good place to hang out for people who really didn’t care about listening to covers – they wanted to hear original music, so that was cool.”

“The Long Shot was doing all the local music back then, and now the Boheme is not doing much of it,” says Tom Zmolek, owner of People’s.

But even with the Long Shot embracing local music, it seems Zmolek’s bar was the most coveted place to play.

“People’s was and still is the best venue to play in Ames, but Tom Zmolek didn’t book a lot of metal bands in his club,” Brown says. “We, [35″ Mudder], were lucky enough to get a gig there every two months. He let us play there because we drew large crowds back in the day, but he only let us play early, allages shows on Sundays at People’s.”

Most of the time, Zmolek gave his stage to the Nadas.

“The Nadas were huge; Mudder was huge,” Zmolek says. “There were a couple bands that were drawing big numbers; the rest of them were sporadic at best.”

So Zmolek devoted much less time and space to the rest of the local scene.

“There were a lot of metal bands that wanted to come up from Des Moines and play [at People’s], but nobody could break in,” Taco says.

Mudder’s ability to get into People’s was only a small sign of the buzz the band was generating.

“In a way, we sort of paved the way and opened some doors for many bands around Central Iowa,” Brown says. “We were the first local band that received a lot of radio play on Lazer 103.3 besides during the Local Licks program every Sunday at 11 p.m.

“We also shared the stage with a ton of national bands including Deftones, Limp Bizkit, Staind and even Motley Cre,” he continues. “And because of that, we drew some attention to the local scene, exposing a lot of bands around here to a lot of fans.”

Rap-metal rockers Deviant and 38th Parallel were just a few of those bands Mudder helped.

But metal was not the only thing going. Mudder and Bocca Saint shared the stage with some of the scene’s successful punk bands, including Grubby Ernie. And the popular rap-rock-funk fusion of Mr. Plow would soon join those bands the next year.

“Everybody got along pretty good,” Nott says. “It didn’t matter what the genre was, we just all played together because that’s all there was.”

The present

“I kind of made an analogy about kids at a daycare that don’t get recess,” Hefley says. “By three o’clock, they’re all at each others’ throats.

“And that’s kind of how Ames is right now,” he continues. “Everybody’s fighting for the same space because we don’t get to go out and play.”

My, how things change.

And while for the most part this competition hasn’t quite evolved into full-scale schoolyard rivalry, there certainly seem to be a lot more kids on the playground.

“In the last couple of years the amount of bands that have popped up is awesome,” says Pat Fleming, co-founder of Bi-Fi Records and guitarist/vocalist in Poison Control Center.

The more than 50 bands that have sprouted in Ames aren’t simply musical clones attempting to cash in on a popular trend.

“Beyond the sheer numbers of bands, [the bands are] branching out into different genres that weren’t really being explored by local musicians, such as rockabilly and no depression,” Zmolek says. “Before it was either the pop band sound like the Nadas or the hardcore [metal] sound like Mudder.”

Bi-Fi Records has diversified the local scene with indie rock acts including Keepers of the Carpet and Envy Corps. Metal maintains its presence in bands such as Shrapnel and Catchpenny. The pop-punk torch is carried by bands like Eight Miles Out and Duck and Cover. There are even some hip hop and R&B acts that have popped up, such as Truth.

Even with the multi-genre palette of bands available in Ames, something seems missing.

“Every band, it seems like, has their own following of friends and girlfriends and stuff,” says Zack Smith, bassist for Keepers of the Carpet. “But I don’t see any bands in Ames with monster followings with huge shows all the time.”

Nearly every successful band from the last five years has moved on or broken up. Bocca Saint changed its name to godkillgod before breaking up in early 2001. Junk Poet called it quits in 1998.

The Mudder machine came to a halt in August of 2000. The members of Grubby Ernie drank their last 40s together onstage in November of 2000. Early 2001 found Mr. Plow departing Ames for Los Angeles. And in late 2001 38th Parallel signed with major label Squint Entertainment.

“I don’t know if we still consider them a local band, but the Nadas are still pulling huge numbers, and their split-off band, the Heroes, [is too],” Zmolek says.

Other than the Nadas, no Ames band is a true powerhouse. But it’s not for lack of talent.

“There’s a ton of awesome bands,” Fleming says. “There’s a few bands that I don’t really like the style of music they’re doing, but I can honestly say that there’s not a band in town that I wouldn’t go see that I know of.”

Instead, members of the Ames music scene, both past and present, point to one basic need for the scene to become strong again.

“We need some clubs in this town, and then I think we’d be there,” Fleming says. “Because we have the bands to play them. It’s just that we need the outlets for letting people express themselves.”

Somewhere to play

“There’s really nowhere else in town that does [let local bands play],” says Louis Lex, owner of The Break, a bar that has featured local acts twice a month since it opened at the end of February. “People’s does, but they’re so set in their music that it’s all the same style.”

Lex is hoping to give local bands a place to be heard.

“We’re trying to mix it up more than anything,” Lex says. “We don’t want to get set in any one style.”

Lex says the local shows drew about 180 people during the school year, but has dropped to about 100 during the summer.

Another bar has been seeing similar results with its relatively new local band night.

“I’ve had some complete surprises of bands I’ve never heard of that ended up bringing in 80 people to see them,” Zmolek says.

He introduced the new music night earlier this year, which features two local bands every Tuesday. Zmolek says he’s given the bands with more drawing power occasional weekend opening slots or shows on Wednesdays.

“Our concept behind it when we first started it was for the local musicians to come and support the other local musicians,” Zmolek says. “And that’s what really defines a town or a city of having a scene is when all the bands are out there supporting each other and helping each other and playing with each other and that sort of thing.

“And I would say that hasn’t developed exactly to the extent that we would like it,” he says.

With their local music nights, the Break and People’s have joined Lumpy’s and the Maintenance Shop in supporting the local scene. During the school year, Lumpy’s would sometimes host local shows on Saturday and the M-Shop often featured Ames bands as openers for the headlining national and regional acts that came through.

“The M-Shop does a good job of getting cool stuff in, but there needs to be three or four M-Shops,” Fleming says.

Brown has a different take on the local venues.

“I think the main problem with Ames is the people booking shows up there only book the kind of music they like,” Brown says. “They don’t realize there’s 20,000 young adults in Ames going to school every year and they all like different styles of music. Not everybody likes hippie rock or a guy sitting around with a guitar playing Bob Seger covers.”

The Boheme never had a problem with giving people social and musical alternatives; those were some of the central goals owner Pete Sherman had when the Long Shot became the Boheme.

“We had all types play,” he says. “Everything from salsa to punk, metal to ska, rock, folk.”

But in the last eight months, Sherman says he noticed the wide range of music at the Boheme drew certain crowds once a week.

“We can’t afford that,” he says. “We need more regulars than that.”

Although Sherman says he doesn’t plan to cut live music from the Boheme, the standards have changed. And these new guidelines exclude a lot of local acts.

“The key to the type of music we want is music which is not drowning volume-wise,” he says. “Hence, it’s usually going to be music with a little more natural percussion or heavier on the lyrics, heavier on the bass guitar as opposed to really strong power chord leads and very loud, indiscernible vocals.”

With the standard bar music format not working quite well enough, Sherman redefined the Boheme’s identity as “eclectic” and having “a more world flavor to it.”

But even with new bands and venues rising and the support of Bi-Fi Records, the Ames Area Music Group and the Cy46 show “Ames Music Live,” many musicians are still looking for something to spark the scene.

“We need venues, we need shows,” Hefley says. “Not even venues, we need shows more than anything, because you can have shows without a constant venue, like people renting the Botanical Center [in Des Moines] all the time. We could do that here in Ames with something. That’s the one thing really that’s going to revitalize everything.”