If you are looking for a cool nightclub to hang out at where you don’t have to be 21 to get in to jam to live music, head on over to the Maintenance Shop.

You won’t find any cleaning equipment there anymore, but when you pop on into the M-Shop, located in the lower level of the Memorial Union, you’ll have placed yourself in an all ages club where all college students are always welcome.

“It’s the only place in town where all college students can get in, and it’s the only place where no one under 21 drinks,” Rusty Poehner, program adviser for the M-Shop, said.

The M-shop is open Monday to Friday from 10:45 a.m. to 9 p.m. to anyone who wants to hang out, get some food or smoke some cigarettes.

But it is also a place where a large variety of performers from across the nation come to put on some of the best entertainment found in Ames.

“It’s not that hard to get well known performers at the shop,” Poehner said. “The M-shop is really famous, too.”

This is the closing half of the twenty-first birthday of the M-shop, Poehner explained, and during the past 21 years the shop has gained a reputation among performers. “If they have a good time somewhere, they tell other people about it,” she said.

And those who perform at the M-shop keep coming back because they like the room, Poehner said.

“It’s very important to performers that they can see all of the audience,” she added.

So if you are a fan of live music, you will be ecstatic to know that “tons and tons of stuff . . . from blues to god only knows what” is coming to the M-shop this semester, Poehner said. “We had one of our best years and I can’t see it getting any worse,” she added.

One band you won’t want to miss is the Iowa favorite House Of Large Sizes. The trio will play three shows at the M-shop, the first on the Aug. 25 with an opener by Grover, and then two shows on the 26th.

Tripping Daisy, with their “amazing traveling light show,” is coming through on the 28th on a package tour with opening bands Local H and UFOFU, Poehner said.

Later on next month, the three ladies who collectively make up The Blue Up? are once again bringing along their Christmas lights and incense for a Sept. 23 show, Poehner said.

“They dress up and just have a hoot,” she added.

On Sept. 26, the king of the surf guitar, Dick Dale, is bringing his “liquid metal” music to the M-Shop for two shows, Poehner said.

What would you say to music that makes your blood boil? If you’re for it, check out Las Toallitas, which is Spanish for “the little napkin,” September 29.

Las Toallitas is a group from Chicago that performs with “a xylophone, keyboard and sax up front … and a totally killer rhythm section,” Poehner said.

An M-Shop press release described their sound as “Mexican gypsy circus Middle Eastern snake charm funk dub Latin monster groove klezmer trance music.”

This is just a partial list of who will be around this semester, and there are tons of goodies coming later. Tickets for all of the M-Shop shows can be purchased at the Memorial Union Box Office, and a current ISU fee card needs to be shown to get the student prices.