While many music venues in Bloomington feature big acts, Player’s Pub is one of the few venues on the scene showcasing local musicians, Vicky Kilmer, co-owner of Player’s Pub said.
His love of local music is what inspired George Hill to establish The Player’s Pub about 10 years ago, Kilmer said.
“He was basically just looking for a place for local musicians to have to come and play because there just wasn’t really any place like that,” Kilmer said. “The Bluebird and Jake’s would have big acts, but there wasn’t really any place for local people to just come and jam.”
Player’s Pub has hosted famous local bands such as The Dynamics and Soul Street, Kilmer said.
“There’s music seven nights a week,” Kilmer said. “Most nights there’s more than one thing going on. Anybody can come in and signup and play if they want.”
The Player’s Pub building is embedded in town history, Kilmer said.
“Back in the 20’s it was Boxman’s Chicken, which I believe is the precursor to KFC,” Kilmer said. “We’ve got some pictures on the wall of the old building that we got from the historical society. It’s been all sorts of things over the years.”
The Player’s Pub hosts a variety of events, including open mics every Wednesday, midnight shows on the weekends and trivia nights Mondays and Tuesdays at 6 p.m.
The Player’s Pub contracts their trivia out to IU alumnus John Johnson, who manages the weekly game nights. Since graduating in 1999, Johnson started his company Mid by Midwest and has worked on writing trivia, murder mysteries and game shows.
“We write everything ourselves and we’re all local,” Johnson said. “It started by trying to turn the game show idea into more of an audience based game.”
Johnson collaborates with his audience through Facebook and questionnaires to make more community-based and interactive trivia.
“What that allows us to do is really play off what the regulars are interested in, have a good time with them and be really specific to the sort of events that are happening in Bloomington,” Johnson said. “We’ll work some of that stuff into the category titles. It aims to be a very organic and community based game.”
Player’s Pub also offers a full service menu and almost the entire pub is now available to those under 21 to expand business to more customers, Kilmer said.
Now families and students can attend and go everywhere up to the gold, green and purple beaded ropes surrounding the bar.
“Until just a few months ago, just the bathroom was under 21,” Kilmer said.
Bloomington is over 800 miles away from New Orleans, but it’s always Mardi Gras at The Player’s Pub.
“We always have a huge celebration,” Kilmer said. “We always refer to it as the third greatest Mardi Gras on the face of the earth. You can argue all day long about who number one and number two are, and we don’t care we’re number three, behind New Orleans and Rio.”
