Mike Noth is sure going to miss playing in a band after Lemming plays their final show Friday night. In four years of being in bands, Noth split the money box up equally and took home his fair share of $26.

“No, I really will miss it,” Noth said. “It’s too fun.”

Lemming formed when Noth and drummer Aaron Filipi teamed up with guitarist Dana Sergent and bassist Pat Wolfe. Noth, Wolfe and Sergent work at the Maintenance Shop.

“Aaron and I were in a band together for two years,” Noth added. “We talked with Dana and Wolfe at work about their band and our band having problems with other musicians, and we basically decided to take the best of the two.

“Working at the Shop, we each had a chance to see the difference between really good bands and really bad ones. We worked really hard with adding flow and life to our shows. Our live show is the most entertaining and energetic of any of the local bands. Some of the younger bands don’t look at keeping the show alive.”

The Ames quartet released the 13-song cassette Limitless last November. The tape received considerable airplay on Lincoln Nebraska’s campus station as well as in Minneapolis and Cedar Falls.

“We’ve done well in Ames, but not as well as we expected,” he said. “Our best songs came out of a jam type of thing. We would bring in a chord progression, and I would add the lyrics.”

Noth believes that Lemming’s style of music is not explainable. “It’s guitar-based, funk-based, with jazz percussions. I would say alternative, but what is that? According to KDDM, it is Technotronic,” Noth joked.

“We never could describe our music; maybe that’s why we are breaking up.”

Actually, Lemming’s departure is due more to age. The four 24-year-olds decided that it was time to make something happen with the band or move on. Noth is moving to Austin, Texas, where he will be a road manager for Bo Bud Greene. Filipi is heading to L.A. to write for Powder magazine.

“We never said, ‘Hey, we’re breaking up,'” Noth said. “We did a pair of shows back in August in Des Moines and Cedar Falls and just never got together afterwards. We had a lot of people tell us that we had to play a farewell show, and when the date came up at the Shop, we took it.”

Lemming, known as the M-Shop’s very own house band, has played a number of shows there, including an opening slot for Dick Dale last fall.

“Dick Dale’s drummer loved our name,” he said. “We always joked about hating it, but kept it anyway. Before the original Lemming, we’d play a gig under one name and change for the next. We finally decided just to stick with one.”

Lemming’s farewell performance is scheduled for 9 p.m. Friday, at the Maintenance Shop. Tickets are $3 and can be purchased at any Ticketmaster outlet.