Same name, different style

The fun used to be on Fridays. \nPeople would leave whatever bar they were at just to be sure they made it to Axis on time to see the Legendary Hot Bod Contest at 12:30 a.m.\nBut some people wouldn't tell their friends if they were going to Axis. \n"People would tell me that they used to go to Axis and then it turned into a really bad crowd," general manager Ken Nickos says. "It just became a place that nobody wanted to go to, except for Hot Bod."\nNickos, Axis' fifth manager in the past five years, was tired of the "bad atmosphere" and wanted to make some changes.\nEven alumnus Heather Walchle of Indianapolis, who graduated last May, remembers that Axis was only popular on Friday nights when she first turned 21.\n"Now I come back to visit on a Thursday and it's not even a question of where we'll go," Walchle says, taking a sip of her nickel beer by the dance floor.\n"Axis never used to have big drink specials and now they do. It draws a crowd."\nFrom building renovations to new drink specials almost every night of the week and the move of Hot Bod to Saturday, Axis is a nightclub that's changing almost everything but it's name.\nA Bit of History\nA few years back, Axis was known to most as Mars. Even the credit card receipts still read "Mars Nightclub." For whatever reason, Nickos says they changed the name to Axis.\nWhen Papa Johns moved in next door, they moved the entrance to where it is now, on the front of the building facing Walnut Street. That's when Nickos says the managers took the club in a whole new direction.\n"Outside of Bullwinkle's, we're the only dance club for students," Nickos says. "The place over the last couple of years has changed directions so many times, it's been hard to keep people coming back and we want to change that."\nA Change of Scenery\nStudent after student walks from one end of the club to the other, their feet sticking to the nasty, sticky carpet drenched in beer and liquor. \n"I don't know who decided it would be a good idea to put carpet in a dance club," Nickos says. "The carpets don't smell all that pleasant and your feet stick to the floor."\nOver the summer, Nickos says they put quite a bit of money into the new hardwood floors beside the bars by the dance floor. Their plan is to put the hardwood flooring around the rest of the club over winter break.\nNickos hopes the new flooring will brighten the place up.\n"That way it won't have such a dark feel," Nickos says. "We want a cleaner atmosphere and (to be) more energetic overall."\nIn August alone, Axis spent almost $25,000 on remodeling and new electronic devices. \nOver the summer, they revamped the sound system and light show and added video screens and big screen televisions.\n"It's not the Axis I remember three years ago," Walchle says, admiring the new scenery.\nBut the changes in scenery don't stop there.\nNickos has plans to take out the stools and tables and put in bench seating along the walls and bigger tables so people don't feel cramped.\nThey also have moved the entrance to where the exit used to be. This allows for customers in wheelchairs to enter and leave the bar more easily. It also helps keep the line outside the club under control.\nDress Code\nNickos remembers the crowd that Hot Bod used to have and remembers that he didn't like it. Girls would tell him that they wouldn't even go to Axis because of the sexual harassment from some of the guys in the club.\n"We switched to a dress code and everywhere that I've ever been we've done one," Nickos says. "My feeling is, is that \n if people want to come out and have a good time, they shouldn't care what they can or can't wear."\nMichael Dabney, doorman and security at Axis for four months, says he's worked for clubs in California and the fact that the Bloomington boys can't wear skullcaps or "wifebeaters" is still a very lenient dress code.\n"We have such a minimal dress code here compared to big cities," Dabney says as he checks IDs. "It's just no cutoff shorts and things like that."\nDabney says some students get mad when he turns them away -- but that it's his job, to help enforce the dress code.\nDress code is important in the event of a fight, Dabney says. Skullcaps and bandannas can too often hide someone's identity.\n"Our dress code isn't strict," Nickos says. "We don't make people tuck in their shirts and if they come in a shirt they can't wear, we've got Axis T-shirts we will give them to put on. It's not like we're sending them away."\nBusting the Myths of Nickel Beers\nThursday nights were never a big thing at Axis, according to Walchle. That is, until late November last year when they started offering nickel beers.\n"Over the course of the spring semester it picked up every week by a few hundred people until the end of the semester we were doing 12 to 1300 people on Thursdays."\nNickos says that number is still rising this year and the popular drink special has become an even bigger deal than Hot Bod.\n"There have been a lot of people here on Thursday nights," Dabney says. "It's made business slow on Fridays because people don't want to come to the same place two nights in a row, but still, Thursdays have been pretty crazy."\nSome people, including general manager Nickos, say they at Axis have heard that the beer for Thursday night's big selling is expired. He says that rumor is ridiculous.\n"Every Wednesday afternoon we get 30 to 50 kegs delivered from Miller and they are brand-new kegs," Nickos says. "We go through all of them every week and anyone is more than welcome to ask about it and we'll show them the dates on the kegs."\nAnother rumor Nickos had heard was that the nickel beers were illegal to sell. He busted that rumor quickly.\n"The only thing you can't do is give beer or liquor away," Nickos says. "And we don't do that."\nAxis has teamed up with Dominos this year and perhaps brought a bit of color to the club. Instead of clear, flimsy plastic cups for the nickel beers, red, green and blue plastic cups with handles are seen in everyone's hands. To get a cup, customers pay one dollar and then have unlimited nickel beers for their cup. They can even bring it back each week.\n"Those cups cost us a small fortune and keg prices went up," Nickos says. "It was either raise cover charge or charge a dollar for plastic cups that people can bring back all the time."\nNot Just a Dance Club Anymore\nNo, the dance floor won't be hopping with crazy light shows and a DJ, and students don't have to wear their "clubbin'" clothes to Axis on a Monday or Tuesday night. But business at Axis has been picking up on the first two nights of the school week.\nMondays and Tuesdays started out with 100 people or so, Nickos says, but the crowd has been picking up. The big screen televisions and video screens are perfect for Monday Night Football and with their good rapport with Dominos, free pizza is always a possibility, Nickos says.\n"And on Tuesdays we offer a cash prize for karaoke," Nickos says. "I really hope that picks up."\nNickos also hopes that with the dance floor being blocked off on Mondays, people will look at Axis in a different light, seeing the awesome drink specials and realizing it's a great place to watch the game.\nWalchle thinks nickel beers have brought in an entire new clientele to Axis and that the changes in scenery will be a good move for the nightclub.\n"Some people aren't the club or dancing type and Axis never had any great drink specials that everyone knew about," Walchle said. "Now all that has changed"