The Official Mike Keneally Website

Progject at Alvas in San Pedro this weekend, Sep. 24 and 25

It is true, I swear to you it’s true, that Alvas in San Pedro has been home to some very memorable performances in my life. San Pedro in general has exerted an energy throughout my life which is unique in my existence. It is somehow fish-related and it has strong family undercurrents and it claims a hold on my consciousness which is true and somehow orange-hued. Anyhow, that’s the first paragraph, I hope you liked it!

But the reason I’m here right now, typing this whilst also reeling from delighted exhaustion and gleeful overwork, is because this very weekend I’m doing two shows at ALVAS SHOWROOM with my dear pals in the entirely-too-entertaining band PROGJECT. I’m here in LA this week rehearsing with these guys. I can’t even express how exhilarating and just plain fun it is to be playing these prog ‘70s classics – just song after song after song that I grew up loving so much when I was a kid – and playing them with these dudes that I enjoy hanging out with so much, it’s just such a treat. These rehearsals have been frankly fantastic and I’m very excited about these gigs.

I know some of this energy will be making its way to the people in attendance at these two shows, and I hope circumstances allow for you to be one of them. This is my solemn desire! I know it’s true because I just typed it with my own dang ten dang fingers! (I really need to sleep – let me wrap this up…)

Progject at Alvas in San Pedro this weekend, Sep. 24 and 25

Here! These are the ticket links that will allow you to gain admittance to see
MICHAEL SADLER
PETE GRIFFIN
JONATHAN MOVER
RYO OKUMOTO
and yours truly, Clyde Crashcup…I mean
MIKE KENEALLY

at Alvas on either Saturday or Sunday this weekend. Or both! Go for it!

THESE ARE THE TICKET LINKS!:

Saturday Sep 24 at 8pm https://alvasshowroom.com/event/progject/

Sunday Sep 25 at 4pm https://alvasshowroom.com/event/progject-2/

Thanks pals!

Mike!

Mike Keneally Report headlining Zappanale on July 17

What goes on?

Antal’s MK Tour Chronology informs me that it has been precisely five years since The Mike Keneally Report (consisting of Jaan Wessman, Schröeder and yer ‘umble narrator) have produced waves of sound for the entertainment of music-enjoying humans, including ourselves. Time to create another round of waves! This time, for the attendees of the venerated Zappanale festival in Bad Doberan, Germany. And, for ourselves. We’ll be headlining on the last night of the festival, which is Sunday, July 17.

Zappanale #31

It’s been a tidy nineteen years since the last time we played Zappanale. It’s a little bit hard to believe that it’s been virtually two decades since the last time I attended this shindig, and even though it’s a bit of an insane time to be world-traveling right now, I gotta say: I’m excited. I wish we had been able to book another couple of weeks of dates around this one (we tried; didn’t happen), but in some ways the fact that it’s just the one date makes it that much more special. We have a very fun program of music prepared for you. Mostly my stuff, but also including a few choice FZ nuggets. We got one song from my upcoming album (title and release date to be announced soon). There are a couple of nice special guests planned for you as well. It will be both fun and good. (I’m also grateful that Ahmet and the Zappa Trust are officially cool with the existence of Zappanale in the world. It’s nice when people get along.) I love Schröeder and Jaan very, very much and can’t wait to rehearse and play with them again.

Please also be aware that on July 14 of the festival, Mikko Keinonen will be presenting the world premiere of The Complete Adventures of the Unrelated Sound Guy, the short film consisting of five songs from my upcoming album. This will be part of the Exhibition at Am Markt 3. I hear it will be taking place “as early as 1pm”; I will still be airborne at that point so sadly I won’t be able to join you at the premiere, but I will absolutely be there in spirit and my songs will hopefully fill in for my absence. I’m looking forward to seeing the final product myself – there’s a good chance that festival attendees will see it before I do! There’s also a good chance that this will be a “work-in-progress” version that will differ in some ways from the final product. So if you want to see this unique rendition of the film, get yourself there if you can.

In another interesting connection to the new album, playing onstage before us on the 17th will be the reconstituted Colosseum, featuring none other than Malcolm Mortimore on drums (who played on Gentle Giant’s Three Friends, and also plays on the song “The Carousel Of Progress” which is the closing track on the new album).

Anyway, loads of good times ahead. If you can join us that would be fantastic. Mask up and come on over.

Love,

Mike!

The Zappa Band has a batch of shows coming up…

The Zappa Band has a batch of shows coming up…
Including one with Beer For Dolphins

Hey! It’s been a little while. What’s been up, eh? Here’s a brief look back at the last month or so for me: After the ProgJect tour ended in early May, I played on Cruise To The Edge with The Zappa Band and Jakko Jakszyk, got COVID on the boat, came home, had to cancel a Beer For Dolphins gig in Escondido on May 13 ‘cause of having COVID, got all better in time to play with The Zappa Band at the Rockefellas.live festival in Banning, CA on May 22, Mike Harris just mastered my new album (with Scott Chatfield’s and my assistance) two days ago, and now there’s all this:

On June 3, The Zappa Band returns to the Whisky-A-Go-Go in remarkable Hollywood, CA. Can’t you hear the crashing, blasting strum already? Tickets to this event can be found here.

Zappa BFD Social Square

Then on June 5, something highly unusual is happening at the Grand Ritz Theater in Escondido, CA, near my hometown of San Diego. The cancelled Beer For Dolphins gig from May 13 has been rescheduled…as the opening act for The Zappa Band. Joe Travers and I will be giving OUR ALL as members of both bands. BFD will play an hour-long opening set, studded with old faves, and seasoned with two songs from my upcoming album*. And then The Zappa Band will continue the presentation of sonic esoterica for another two colorful, wonderful hours. Three hours of immense density, for an extremely reasonable price.

Tickets to the Escondido show, which has an early start time of 6pm (it’s a Sunday), are here.

And separate tickets to the VIP EXPERIENCE, which gains you 3pm access to our soundchecks, and allows you to hurl questions at the stage between songs (we will answer you), can be found here – click the PRODUCTS tab on this page to find the VIP tickets.

Adding extra emotional weight to this San Diego-area show for me is the fact that my wife Sarah and I are preparing to move out of Southern California and go to live in a whole other land. I’ve been a Southern California boy for 52 years, and 44 of those years have been spent in San Diego county. So this’ll be my last local show as a San Diego resident, and I’m playing in both bands to boot – it’s likely to be a heavy evening for me, so if you want to come witness some potential blubbering, this will be a good place for you to be.

The Zappa Band

A few days after all that, The Zappa Band tour of the eastern U.S. will commence. Our first-ever headlining tour, and we’ve got enough material in the hopper to do some decent setlist-altering from night to night, so if you come to multiple shows you will probably see some different songs at each one. All the ticket links to all o’ them shows are right here on our very own live dates page.

Gotta get back to prepping for these Cali gigs. All of us in the Zappa Band have to play on different gear than usual at the LA and Escondido gigs because we will have just put all of our regular gear on a truck to be shipped east for the tour, so I have to work out which patches I’m going to use on this here Kurzweil K2vx that my friend Paul Rose has been kind enough to lend me for the SoCal gigs. That was some exclusive, behind-the-scenes scoopery for you right there!

You guys stay awesome and healthy and well, promise? Love you tons, always.

Me (Mike)

*Release date for the new album to be announced, um, pretty soon! We’re figuring it out. I’m happy that it’s finally mastered, that was a big step!