People’s Bar and Grill has a reputation unlike any other bar in Central Iowa. Just recently, the bar, 2428 Lincoln Way, was named Playboy.com’s campus bar of the month and hosted a Playboy Pajama Party.

People’s has also been featured as one of Playboy’s top 100 college bars and has been host to a number of big name acts such as Buddy Guy, Hootie and the Blowfish, and The Wallflowers.

The bar has a spacious stage, a 250-person capacity and a very uncramped setup.

But it has a reputation of a different manner when it comes to the local music scene.

“The fact is that I’ve been told that it is impossible to get in there, so we’ve got to play there,” said Errin Keltner of The Jackass Project.

Building a strong foundation with local music is something people in and around the scene feel is essential for a venue like People’s. Among them is Craig Owsley, who books hard rock bands at Gabe’s Oasis in Iowa City.

“Without bringing in local groups, you aren’t developing anything with the local community,” Owsley says.

Owsley describes Gabe’s as “very scene-oriented” and says it has to be, meaning that local bands that play Gabe’s also become customers of the club. They will come in and check out the national and regional talent that Gabe’s also brings in, bringing friends with them.

Tonight will be one of the rare occasions that People’s offers its stage to local groups as hard rock acts Index Case, Seven Point Six Two and The Jackass Project will play a 21 and older show put on by Mountain Dew in support of its new energy drink, Amp.

But it wasn’t People’s making an effort to bring in these groups. Instead it was Mountain Dew teaming up with Lazer 103.3 that decided which local bands would play the show, says owner Tom Zmolek.

In its history, People’s hasn’t provided much support for local music, something owner Tom Zmolek doesn’t deny.

Eight to 10 years ago, the lack of local acts playing the bar was a little more understandable, because at the time, Zmolek was bringing in top up-and-coming acts; People’s was rap/rock group 311’s first show out of the Omaha area.

Lately there isn’t much opportunity to see many smaller national acts on the rise at People’s. Zmolek said this is because Des Moines can bring in more of these acts than in previous years. The Val Air Ballroom in West Des Moines is starting to bring in more and more national acts, and Supertoad was the concert leader in Central Iowa before closing its doors last spring.

Zmolek says another reason for the lack of local music at People’s is that hard rock doesn’t fit the bar’s format.

“Obviously a band like The Nadas fit into our format from Day One, and a band like Pookey Bleum or Blank Skeme just aren’t our kind of music,” he says.

“I have to book stuff that is going to bring people in. We’re more folky, pop and modern rock-oriented and the more hard-core stuff just doesn’t go over well with our crowd,” Zmolek continues. “It’s more of a matter of supply and demand; the people that come to People’s don’t like that kind of music and the people that like that kind of music don’t come to People’s.”

So why doesn’t a college crowd the size of Iowa State support something besides Floodplane, and why doesn’t People’s, like similar clubs in Iowa, take some chances on at least some established local groups?

Gus Ramirez, booker for Hairy Mary’s near Drake in Des Moines, is envious that People’s can get college students to come out to shows.

People’s has it made, Ramirez says. “They’re right there, right on campus. Drake kids don’t come out for music, Ames kids do.”

But Zmolek’s hands are tied when it comes to booking if people won’t give something new a chance.

“Believe me, I’m the last person that wants to book Tim Mahoney every six weeks, but I have to because he sells out every time he’s there,” Zmolek says. “It’s not that it’s bad music – it’s good music – it just gets repetitive. Do I book the music that I would really like to book in an ideal world? I could care less that Dazy Head Mazy is coming in every six weeks, but I’m also trying to run a business.”

However, Owsley doesn’t agree that bringing in local bands is necessarily a risk. Gabe’s puts on local shows every Wednesday and says that more college kids show up for local shows than national shows. When Gabe’s puts on a local show, even if it only brings in 50 people, each of those 50 people will probably spend $2 at the bar, and then Gabe’s has covered its expenses, Owsley says. Saying local bands won’t draw a crowd is just an excuse.

“By saying that, it’s a way that you can tell these bands that you don’t want to book their shows and get away with it,” Owsley says.

One way Hairy Mary’s, which does a number of local shows, tries to combat low turnouts for local shows is by making sure local bands that play the club aren’t playing everywhere else in Des Moines as well.

“If you play around town all the time, you don’t have any new songs, you’ve been playing the same . album that you played in ’96 well then of course your turnout is going to suck,” Ramirez says.

Often, it seems, Zmolek is at the mercy of a crowd that doesn’t really care.

“A lot of times we don’t even check to see what bands are playing,” says Mike Hansen, senior in industrial engineering. “I go there to drink beer and anyone who is playing is playing.”

Mike Patak, senior in economics and agriculture business, says that he doesn’t usually like the music and most of the time he just stays long enough for a few drinks.

Hansen, who goes to People’s three to four times a week, also says he and his friends would go to People’s no matter who is playing and would give local bands a chance as well but doesn’t like bands that “really crank it up so you can’t talk.”

Both Hansen and Patak say that even though they don’t really go for the music, they would like to see some more variety, which in their minds would be more cover bands.

But as Hansen puts it, “A good cover band is hard to find.” Patak, unlike Hansen, probably wouldn’t want to see local music unless they were playing covers as opposed to original music.

People’s has given some local groups their shot at the bar over the years, and most of those bands have taken advantage of it. Two years ago, Ames metalcore group 35″ Mudder sold out a number of shows there, and at the same time introduced the club to Mr. Plow, which also enjoyed success there and will return for two shows next week.

Some groups, such as Keepers of the Carpet, have even been given an open invitation to play People’s. The group held its record release party at People’s.

Bass player Zach Smith described the chance to have the party at People’s as “a chance of a lifetime because they don’t let many local bands in; they don’t give them much of a chance.”

Then there are bands like The Jackass Project that have previously and unsuccessfully tried to get into People’s, but will get their shot tonight when they headline the 21 and older show. Guitarist Keltner has an analogy about playing People’s.

“It’s like the butt sex with your girlfriend or something; it’s not something that you are supposed to get accomplished. So the first challenge is to get in there. How cool the club is, that’s insignificant.”

Zmolek has a solution to the lack of diversity at People’s.

“When I do bring something different in, come out and see it,” he says. “You can sit there and complain about something, but when we turn around and do something different like this Amp promo with a different genre of bands than we normally do, and no one comes out to see it, that comes back to me as saying `OK, I could have had 150 people in here tonight with Boner playing, but we tried something new and nobody showed up.'”