When you take a look at the latest JACKOPIERCE CD, Finest Hour, you might think that success has gone to their heads. The gruff looking duo of Jack O’Neill and Cary Pierce that Ames has come to know appear to have gotten a make-over.

“People always came up to us and said we didn’t look anything like we did on our albums,” vocalist/guitarist, O’Neill said. He said the group gave a bit more thought to their look and agrees it’s more them, in more ways than one.

“I was actually really hung-over for the shoot,” O’Neill said. “But it turned out cool.”

Now a full-fledged foursome with Clay Pendergrass on bass, Earl Darling on drums and the two vocalists/guitarists, the group still sees itself as a “bar band.”

“We’re festive, that’s what we’re all about,” O’Neill said. “If you have people coming out to pay to see you, you better give them something good.”

Good is, at best, an understatement. JACKOPIERCE is known for selling out crowds with its sophisticated songwriting and blend of vocal harmonies. And if you have a bout of dejavu when hearing its music, don’t be alarmed. You probably were probably PIERCED before and didn’t even know it.

The Ames band The Nadas has covered JACKOPIERCE’s “Vineyard” numerous times. But that’s not a rarity for O’Neill.

“It’s always interesting to hear someone else covering your music,” he said. “Once I was in Boulder (Colo.) and I heard some guy playing out on the patio and I thought ‘that’s cool.’ Then I realized it was a JACKOPIERCE tune.”

Once upon a time, though, it was Pierce and O’Neill who were doing the covering. The one-time “renegades of the theater department” met at Southern Methodist University in Texas and hooked up to make music.

From O’Neill came folk influences like Bob Dylan and Neil Young. Pierce preferred the more poppy numbers from R.E.M., New Order and Big Country. The motivation for the two was equally as different as their musical tastes.

“Cary was always determined,” O’Neill said. “When we first started playing he said, ‘Look, this is what I want to do with my life. Are you in?’ And I said, ‘I guess I am. What’s the deal? We get free beer?'”

But O’Neill said the two have found a simpatico that fits. “We’re pretty opposite,” he said, “but we know each other really well. He knows how to cover my weaknesses.”

If covering up is a talent, the group has mastered that well. Finest Hour is almost as much a mystery to listen to as it is a joy. It includes a hidden track, “World’s Greatest,” repeats track number two, “Trials,” and has a brief intermission of about two minutes.

“Records are trippy things,” O’Neill said. “There’s so much crazy stuff you can do.”

He particularly enjoyed the idea of the silent interlude between “Crazy” and the second hidden version of “Trials.”

“You could be listening to it late at night and then nothing—silence,” O’Neill explained. “That’s when you fall asleep. But then it starts back up and you wake up to some weird s—t.”

JACKOPIERCE will be giving Ames a wake up call on Wednesday night at People’s Bar and Grill. Wakeland will kick things off at 9:30 p.m.

Tickets are $10 in advance, $12 day of show and are available at People’s or through Ticketmaster, 233-1888. For more information call 292-4501. Oh, if you’re not 21 you can go to bed earl;, ID is required.