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ProgJect tour – coming in April

A few weeks ago I joined a new band called ProgJect, which is the brainchild of drummer/mover/shaker Jonathan Mover, whose work you may know from Joe Satriani, or Marillion, or GTR, or the Musical Box, or his work as editor of Drumhead Magazine or various other entrepreneurial  (MAN that’s a hard word to spell) activities with which he’s found himself entwined over the years.

A couple of years ago he got it into his head to put together something of an all-star band playing a bunch of the progressive rock of the ‘70s he grew up loving (Genesis, Yes, Crimson, ELP, Floyd, Gentle Giant, Bruford, etc.). He joined forces with Ryo Okumoto, the keyboardist from Spock’s Beard, and very soon Michael Sadler (vocalist from SAGA) and Matt Dorsey (bassist from Sound Of Contact and In Continuum) became a part of the enterprise.

ProgJect tour – coming in April

Apparently they had it mind at the beginning of the whole process that they’d like me to play guitar, but thought I was too busy, and then the pandemic happened, and in the event I didn’t hear anything about the project until October 2021. I went up to LA to play with them in January of this year, and basically right away I was going “oh yeah, this needs to happen.”

I love all these songs so much – I grew up loving them just like Jonathan did, and it is absurdly exhilarating to play all these different, fantastic songs one right after the other. We’ve been rehearsing every weekend pretty much and I promise you, it’s a really powerful set of music. I think audiences are going to be extremely happy about this band.

The ProgJect website is this here: www.progject.com

If you want to go directly to the tour dates, that’s here: www.progject.com/main/#tour

This is pretty much an east coast tour, although it starts with an LA show on Apr. 1. Jonathan has very ambitious long-term plans for this band, so don’t be concerned if we’re not coming to your town right away – the idea is to play everywhere. I hope you get to see us soon.

Mike!

Hurricane moves Crimson/Zappa Band concert

Hurricane moves Crimson/Zappa Band concert

Blame the weather! Our show this Tuesday has been relocated from the Pines Theater in Northampton to Symphony Hall in Springfield, MA. This post you see here, which I took from the Crimson page, says that it’s a hurricane that’s responsible, but now actually been downgraded to a severe storm. No matter, the show has been moved no matter what you want to call it. Basically the sky is doing weird things and we have to go inside.

Of course now that it’s inside, with even less open space for virus bugs to fly away to a non-harmful zone, there’s even more reason for you to wear your dang mask to the gig. It even says here that you have to wear one to hang out in there, unless you’re actively eating or drinking. I personally have gotten pretty good at eating with the mask on. If we end up eating together I’ll show you how. That’s not likely though because I am going to be one anti-social mofo on this tour. If anyone on this tour comes down with the Covard (as my mother-in-law likes to call Covid, charmingly), the tour is OVER. Just like lots of tours are right now.

I sort of can’t believe we’re doing this at all, but as long as we are, I’m going to have a good time playing. We just had a couple of days rehearsal in Albany and the band is sounding really freaking good. We had a great gig at the Greek Theatre in LA a couple of weeks ago, and I look forward to at least equalling it over the next few weeks.

Is that the proper spelling? “Equalling”? Looks really weird.

Anyway! Don’t go to Northampton on Tuesday if you intend to see the Zappa Band and King Crimson that day! IT WON’T DO YOU ANY GOOD!

Mike!

THE ZAPPA BAND OPENING FOR KING CRIMSON IN THE U.S….AND A NEW 1988 ZAPPA CONCERT RELEASE

Yeah, The Zappa Band are going to play seventeen shows with King Crimson in the U.S. in a couple of months from now. Yes I wish we were playing outside the U.S. too! But I’m highly grateful for every gig we’re getting. I’m starting to feel severely excited to get out and do some playing. Some aspects of coming out of hiding are unnerving. But getting onstage and playing some music isn’t one of those things.

The Zappa Band consists of Scott Thunes, Ray White, Robert Martin, Joe Travers, Jamie Kime, and me.

Music Is Our Friend Tour 2021

The Crimson band is the same three-drummer, four-non-drummer lineup that’s been making glowingly beautiful music live for a few years now. A truly wonderful ensemble.

Together it’s going to be a really, really good night of music (yes I treated myself to two “really”s there).

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