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2001 Pix

Sleekness In Seattle

Mike Keneally & Beer For Dolphins played an electrifying set at Seattle's luxurious Experience Music Project Saturday night, March 10, performing as part of EMP's "Guitar Masters" series. The band was warmly welcomed back to Seattle by hundreds of old and new fans after a 2 1/2-year absence. Basking in the love are (l. to r.) Rick Musallam, Marc Ziegenhagen, Mike Keneally, Jason Harrison Smith, Evan Francis, Bryan Beller and Tricia Williams.


FROM DEEP IN THE HEART OF TEXAS…

Growing boys Bryan Beller, Mike Keneally, Pat Mastelotto and Evan Francis take time out for a nutritious meal at a tony Austin eatery before a double dose of head-ripping at their South By Southwest performances on Friday, March 16.

By Bryan Beller

Well, we're nearly a week into our two-week Taylor acoustic/South By Southwest adventure, and I just couldn't go a second longer without filing a mini-report from the state where men are men, livestock live in fear, and gratuitous slams of George W. Bush's home state flow all too easily and inaccurately from the fingertips of your humble narrator.

I mean that. OK, some of Texas you can have. The numbing drive from El Paso to Austin you can have. The guy responsible for designing the highway/road system in and around the Austin metropolitan area—and then ripping it to shreds with construction right in the middle of South By Southwest—you can most definitely have forever and ever, Amen. But then there's Austin, a freakish island of culture, music, art and good vibes amidst the deserts, oil wells and ten-gallon hats. Some call it "the San Francisco of Texas", and as jarring and impossible as that sounds, it rings true to this convert.

The music: It's been a joy to finally do something formal with the Keneally-Beller acoustic format. (All praise is due to Taylor Guitars, Amen.) Ever since its origin back in (gulp) 1995 in a widely video-bootlegged performance at the Better World Galleria in San Diego, I've been longing to make a more regular habit of it. Now that the band is so humongous, one-on-one moments of Keneally/Beller onstage interaction have been less frequent by necessity, as we're more focused on steering the Good Ship BFD through heretofore uncharted musical waters. Not so in the clinics. It's been a joy to reconnect with Mr. K in that regard, and for those on the fence about attending the Southwestern clinics, I highly recommend this opportunity to hear every note. For better or for worse.

South By Southwest: Count me ashamed and ignorant, for not only had I not met Pat Mastelotto before the day of our rehearsal and performance, I didn't even know who he was. (You would be shocked—shocked!—at the amount of things I don't know about music) All he did was take complex material like "We'll Be Right Back" and "Kedgeree" and knock the shit out of it, practically on first performance. His groove and sound were thunderous and perfectly apropos to the stripped-down four-piece lineup we sported for SXSW. 'Twas a pleasure meeting him, playing with him, and eating with him at the famous Taco Express pictured on the front page of the website (aka The Holy Temple of WWF's China, Amen). Our Copper Tank Brewery show was well attended and well received, both by Extreme Forheads (Terry and Shannon, we salute you) and music biz/press, which delighted a certain Mr. Lamn Xavb to no end.

Evan Francis: This young man of twenty is, to paraphrase MK, well on his way to becoming a master improvisationalist. His sense of musicality is so strong, so confident, and so mature, it just frightens me. When I was twenty, I was a dumb fucking kid. Dumb as a bag of hammers and greener than unshucked corn. What a pleasure it was to have Evan around for SXSW and one clinic.

News: I wrote a song. My first ever. A solo piece for the Taylor acoustic/electric bass. It's called "No." I've been doing it at the clinics. It's scary to perform your own music, but I'm getting used to it. You should have seen me playing it for the first time for Keneally in his apartment before we left. I was sweating in places I didn't know I had glands. I seem not to be screwing it up too badly in public, and for that I'm grateful, Amen.

The Big Story: What's really going on is the Keneally-Chatfield-Beller mind meld. The three of us are rolling around the Southwest in a 2001 Chevy Venture maxi-van, listening to music, catching up with each other, talking business on cell phones, and drawing up the blueprints for future worldwide Keneally/BFD domination. The ideas being bandied about in this Exowax Office-on-Wheels will be implemented throughout the coming year and beyond, and I, for one, am excited beyond words.

Alas, it's not all about leading humanity to a higher plane of existence. You know those little bar indicators on a cell phone that tell you how strong the signal is in that particular area? Your high-minded trio has found an artful new glossary term for them: boners. Context? MK: "What's your signal like here, Bryan? I've only got three analog boners." BB: "I'm fully bonered. Five digital boners. Scott?" SC: "Four analog boners, just dropped to two. Can I use your phone, Bry?"

Sometimes, the road is just the road. Amen and Amen.

Bryan Beller
3/18/01


Mike Keneally with Steve Vai on the G3 Tour

Mike and Steve's bandmates are Billy Sheehan, Virgil Donati and Dave Weiner. The other two "G"s are Joe Satriani and John Petrucci.
Left photo by Kathleen McCann, right photo by Joe Hlavaty.


MK/BFD Celebrate Evan's Birthday at Full Sail

Mike and the band served up two delicious sets at Full Sail Real World Education's state-of-the-art Full Sail Live concert facility in Orlando, Florida, Saturday night, August 25. Evan Francis (third from left) celebrated his 21st birthday in style during the concert.


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