Andrew Visnovsky, a State College native, heard about the Asylum when he was in high school.

When he began college, Visnovsky (junior-political science) started attending meetings every week. The Asylum, which defines itself simply as a club for people who like music, occupied much of Visnovsky's time.

Eventually though, last semester he was forced to miss a meeting. It was during this meeting the rest of the club elected him president.

"I was a little stressed out," Visnovsky said. "I didn't think I'd be able to put in the time and effort. I didn't want to be the one responsible for the club dying."

His worries may have been unfounded, though. During his reign as Asylum president over this and last semester, Visnovsky has seen the club grow substantially, from fewer than 10 members to about 30 who attend meetings regularly. One of those current members is club treasurer Lauren Graham (junior-media studies). Graham had become friends with Visnovsky through class and began attending meetings in fall of 2006 at his persuasion.

More important than people coming to the meetings, Graham said, is the fact that people continue to come back.

"The friendship connection is what keeps people coming to meetings," she said. "It's more than just booking shows. It's a social networking thing."

Graham said, in addition to organizing concerts, club members this semester also have plans for a Scrabble night and a Secret Santa with mix CDs.

"I don't know if older Asylum officers ever had a Thanksgiving dinner," said Andy Pool, Asylum vice president.

Asylum secretary Austen Talbot (sophomore-psychology) said after attending meetings last fall, he quickly found there was more to the club than organizing concerts, and it was this dynamic that got him invested into the club.

"A lot of the time, we just hang out and talk about music," Talbot said. "Since we all have similar interests, it's a good place to get to know each other."

Given the diversity of the shows the club has booked this semester -- with headliners alone ranging from acoustic to pop-punk to hardcore -- such "similar interests" are only similar relative to the rest of the Penn State populace. While the "average" Asylum member tends toward emo and pop-punk, Visnovsky said a large variety of music is represented by different club members. "We've branched into a lot of sub-genres," Graham said. "Whatever the members feel like doing. It's always been about providing students with free shows in genres they wouldn't normally see downtown."

Though the club's goal is ostensibly to bring music for an underground niche of music fans, Asylum member Jessica Nambudiri (junior-journalism and media studies) said the club puts its members' interests before those of other students.

"The key to staying involved is producing a show that you like, because that'll make you put yourself into it more," she said. "The Asylum is like any other club at Penn State: It's as good as the people in it."

That being said, even though the club is as big as 30 or 40 people by some estimates -- there are more than 100 people on the Asylum listserv, but not nearly that many show up to meetings -- the club still draws between 200 to 400 people to its shows, appealing to people outside of the group.

"The type of music and type of shows we usually book have become more popular," Asylum member Dom Frunzi (junior-arts and architecture) said.

Frunzi said the "type" of music and shows can be "anywhere from punk to hardcore to rock to alternative."

The club has shown dramatic growth over the past few years, from a small core of music lovers booking a show or two per semester into a more organized group of dozens of members responsible for at least one concert every month. They've put together five shows this semester alone, more than the club has been able to muster in any individual semester in recent memory.

"Last semester was all about learning how to do it," Graham said. "This semester was all about learning how to do it well."

Despite the recent success, the club is not growing complacent. Visnovsky said he expects the Asylum to build on its momentum through coming semesters and cement itself as a legitimate source of music.

"We're all about being a catalyst for local music scene," Visnovsky said. "All of our shows this semester have had at least one relatively local band in the lineup. If not from State College, then at least from Altoona or Harrisburg."

Visnovsky said the plan is to continue at the one-show-per-month pace next semester and to have one really big HUB-Robeson Center show in the spring. The key to the club's newfound efficiency, he said, has been delegation and teamwork.

"I saw all these new members, and it only takes a few people to run any show," he said. "Everybody's really had a hand. The only way a club can really work is if we're all a family."

And as big as that family has gotten, Visnovsky said there's room for more. The club, which meets weekly outside of the east entrance to the Electrical Engineering Building East at 6:30 p.m. on Wednesdays, is open to new members.

"There are always people interested in the underground music scene," Visnovsky said. "Everyone knows someone in a band, and in a perfect world, my target audience is everyone at Penn State. But it's more for the people that are kind of into that underground mindframe, and it's really for the people who are into creativity and art in general."