The New Amsterdams come to Mohawk Place on Friday (Feb. 16), with support from the Highway Beautiful and Jettason. Featuring former Get-Up Kids frontman Matt Pryor, the New Amsterdams formed in 2000 after Pryor had spent ten years exhausting his original outfit. They’ve recorded five albums since, most recently releasing Story Like a Scar in 2006 (Vagrant Records), a breezy, nostalgic ode to Pryor’s home of Lawrence, Kansas and to his former incarnation as a Get-Up Kid. The band plays soft sounds with heavy lyrics and uses a variety of instruments —lap steel, banjo, harmonica, stand-up bass, brushed drums— to create a kind of mystical Americana that is at once cerebral and “down home.” Local artists the Highway Beautiful (a one-man band named Jason Jurewicz and his guitar) and Jettason open the show, set to start at 6pm. Righteous Babe recording artist That 1 Guy will play a late show at 11pm