The AMP
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The AMP is a youth center and music venue in Minot, North Dakota. Established in October 2003 by Billy Luetzen, the AMP provides a place for local youth to hang out, and on most weekends stages a concert. The AMP has hosted a number of acts with a wide range of music. Generally concerts have a lot of punk rock, but also a number of indie and acoustic acts play there. The AMP has also organized film and theatre events on occasion.
The AMP has generated a national reputation for its atmosphere; it's rather rare for there to be an all-ages venue and hangout in any city, especially one so all-encompassing; while its spiritual predecessor, the Liberty Social Tavern, featured a rather narrow range of music and crowd, the AMP was wide open to new types of music and performance, inviting not just social outcasts but even those in "popular" youth classes.
The AMP also shares some of the anti-commercial ethic of the Liberty, but doesn't carry it to the point of exclusion; though the AMP eschews the profit motives of large-city venues in favour of simply providing a free and open public forum, it does not reject support from area businesses either. A pragmatic, friendly attitude has allowed the AMP to have unprecedented success in Minot.
In July 2004 the AMP was forced to close its first location at 412 3rd St NW when the building owner found a renter. The AMP organized events at the Taube Museum of Art and the Minot Public Library over the summer of 2004.There was considerable controversy over a show held in September 2004, a film festival put on by a travelling group espousing borderline criminal activities.The manager of the Dakota Square Mall asked the president of Minot State University to cancel the show, which was then scheduled to take place at the Aleshire Theatre on campus. Following a row with several professors over censorship concerns the show was reinstated, but by that time a room at the Public Library had already been rented and fliers advertising the show at the Library, and the show took place there.
On 30 October 2004 the AMP held its first concert at its new location downtown, at 106 South Main Street. On 26 November 2004, it first published AMPnews, a newsletter dealing with the AMP and the music scene.
On 19 February 2005, the AMP was proud to host burnthe8track.
The AMP website (http://www.ampminot.com)