 "Photo: Mike Farrell")
A month ago I was sitting in the "Panther Den" of AmPm lead singer Mike Hesslein's apartment. The room, like the apartment overall, is compact, a little stuffy, and is decorated from wall to wall with eclectic paraphernalia. The walls are covered with music posters, random quotes, art made by friends, a long frameless mirror, a poster of John Travolta, a Darth Vader mask, and a panther for which the room is named. Other items in the room include a model of a human skull, a nutcracker and an incense stick box.? AmPm has been compared by New Hampshire Magazine to such popular bands as Radiohead and Coldplay, but to this listener, they are more than that. AmPm is like the "Panther Den;" they are an amalgamation of styles and musical influences that combine to create a new and unified whole that, when hearing them for the first time, you think, "This is something special." After hearing them play last Friday night at the Gables Community Center, I'd go so far as to compare them to The Beatles, just one of the band's many influences. Like The Beatles, they have a camaraderie, playfulness and energy that one does not find in all bands. Laughter, teasing and jokes frequently broke conversation in the "Panther Den". During the interview, a gaudy, oversized pair of sunglasses with lights changed faces a few times in the dimly lit room. During a sample play of the AmPm original "Take the Taste," bass player Garret Desjardins faux-played along on a toy light-saber. The jokes didn't end at the apartment. Fitting to the band's whimsy, the band advertised Friday's concert as "Anne of Green Gables." According to guitarist Mike Amadon, AmPm's last show at The Stone Church had been titled after the popular yogurt brand, "Stonyfield Farms."
Speaking to AmPm's brotherliness, Hesslein said that the four of them (Michael Hesslein, Garret Desjardins, Mike Amadon and Alex Dyment) are best friends and the band is the fifth part. ? UNH sophomore Amanda Flitter and UNH senior Sky Gidge both commented after the Gables concert on the obvious chemistry between AmPm's members. Flitter and Gidge agreed that AmPm seem to enjoy playing their music and playing with each other. AmPm's character may be like The Beatles', but their music is much darker and moodier with unique twists that will sooth you one moment and have you jumping the next in a virtually seamless transition.
"The crowd was at [Hesslein's] will," commented Flitter, referring to when Hesslein brought the majority of the 50-to 60-person crowd to crouch down on the floor during the song "Let You Down" and then brought them back up as the song picked up. They also have the organic timing and creativity of a jazz ensemble. Before the show. they warmed up by playing a jazz piece. When asked what song it was, Dyment replied that it was nothing in particular.
Said Gidge about AmPm's chemistry, "They know when to hit the guitar, when to hit the drum -- they get each other." Add in the band's ambient post-rock influences such as Mogwai and Do Make Say Think, along with classic rock influences such as Jimi Hendrix, and you end up with AmPm -- a band whose live shows make you wonder if this was how it felt for your baby boomer parents to experience rock music back in the 1960s.
The Gables concert began a little after 9 p.m. and lived up to Amadon's statement from a month ago: "We'll play something fun [and] we'll throw some surprises out there," one surprise being a room with lots of white balloons that the audience bopped up in the air, creating a slow-motion rain of bouncing balloons each time the music picked up. AmPm played a couple covers, one of them being "Slippin' and Sliding" by The Band, the AmPm version sounding far less booze-soaked than the original. AmPm showed some of the diversity of their musical influences by playing "Cissy Strut" by funk band The Meters. The band played several songs from their new self-titled album, which will be independently released in a few weeks, including "Take the Taste." And they debuted some new songs, among them, "Pirate SONG." which alternated between calm melodies and eardrum-perforating loudness. Hesslein sings in a style similar to both Jeff Tweedy of Wilco and Neil Young. Unfortunately, it was a little hard to hear Hesslein over the other instruments, but that could have been due to the limits of the sound system, which Woodsides manager Nate Hastings (who booked AmPm to play at the Gables) said was better suited to acoustic sets. Hastings said he had invited AmPm to play Friday night because they were a good band that has played at such prominent venues as Harper's Ferry in Boston and The Stone Church in Newmarket, and because of their high profile among the UNH community. ? After the Gables show, Hesslein said that they had not played many shows since they recorded their new album over winter break. As a result, he said, "We wanted to do a show where we could have a lot of fun and show the crowd what [we'd] been doing." ? This show, he said, "was just how I wanted it -- high energy, fun, and all our friends showed up and [had] fun."
AmPm's next concert will be held on April 12 at the Deerfield town hall.
Their music, including their new album when it comes out, are often sold at their concerts and can be purchased by contacting them on their MySpace page (http://www.myspace.com/ampmband) or through their official website (http://www.ampmmusic.net/). The new album will be priced at around $8.
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