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Mike Keneally is set to launch his first West Coast full-band tour in years, bringing his inventive musical vision to nine cities in October in support of the Keneally Band's latest Exowax Recordings DVD/CD live release, Bakin' @ the Potato.
They'll hit San Diego to play Winston's in OB on October 21.
In a unique twist, this tour’s Mike Keneally Band members also comprise the opening act, the Beller Band. The group includes Keneally’s longtime bassist Bryan Beller (Steve Vai, Dethklok), whose intricate jazz/rock compositions and tasteful playing earned his third and latest album Wednesday Night Live widespread acclaim.
The Keneally/Beller Band West Coast 2011 Tour features Keneally, Beller, drummer Joe Travers (Zappa Plays Zappa), and guitarists Rick Musallam (Ben Taylor, Byrd York) and Griff Peters (Billie Myers, Anika Paris).
Mike Keneally was fronting local band Drop Control when the invitation came in 1987 to join Frank Zappa’s touring band as a “stunt guitarist,” replacing Steve Vai.
“The multivolume work I’m doing now, Scambot, shows a lot of Frank’s influence,” says Keneally. “Frank’s presence has been exerting itself in my life a lot lately…I’ve been listening to his music in the car for several months.”
Asked to describe his music, Keneally says “It’s essentially rock, with equal emphasis on improvisation and strictly composed things. There’s a lot of guitar in it. I’m mainly known as a guitarist, although keyboard was my first instrument, and I play a lot of different instruments on my recordings. Dynamically, melodically, rhythmically, and lyrically, it’s real diverse and eclectic. I love a lot of different musical styles, and it all gets mashed in.”
Keneally has released nine albums of original music since 1992 and has shared the stage with Screamin’ Jay Hawkins, Robert Fripp, Negativland, Wayne Kramer, Solomon Burke, Sting, the Persuasions, and the Loud Family.
“I play so much, I’m always finding stuff I forgot at RadioKeneally.com,” he admits. “Like unreleased songs from my live shows which I’ve only heard once and then forgotten about. Any one of our shows is distinct from any other, so listening reminds me of onstage happenings which otherwise would have slipped my mind, like spontaneous Monkees covers or microtonal broken-string guitar solos and improvisations.”
Keneally has another secret identity: he sometimes becomes a heavy metal cartoon character, in order to tour with Dethklok, based on the Cartoon Network TV show Metalocalypse.
“We don’t dress to resemble the cartoon,” he says, “because we’ve got three projection screens with animation going during the show, similar to the band Gorillaz, showing the cartoon band ‘performing’ the music we’re playing onstage...the drummer wears headphones so that the live band stays synched to the visuals. The band dresses all in black and stays mostly in the shadows until the last song, when the cartoon band goes away and the live band is flooded with white light.”
Keneally landed the ’toon gig by contacting Metalocalypse creator/songwriter Brendon Small via MySpace.
“[I told] him that my girlfriend and I were big fans of his first show, Home Movies. He wrote back to say he was a huge fan of mine too, having seen me play live in 1996 when he was a student at Berklee College of Music in Boston...When the Dethklok album of music from the TV show came out and proved to be such a surprising success, there was a need for a live show and a live band to play it, so he asked me and my bass player, Bryan Beller, if we would join forces with him and legendary metal drummer Gene Hoglan.”
Keneally’s 2009 album Wine and Pickles is a collection of obscure studio tracks from 1998 to 2006. His newly formed trio Keneally Minnemann Beller made a splash at their January 16, 2009, performance at the NAMM show (National Association of Music Merchants), and a songwriting collaboration is in the works between Keneally and XTC’s Andy Partridge.
In September 2010, at the Adams Avenue Street Fair, he covered for absent ex-Megadeth guitarist Chris Poland when the band OHM appeared on the Lestat’s Stage. Poland had to bow out due to medical issues. The band also includes drummer Kofi Baker (son of Cream drummer Ginger Baker) and bassist Robert Pagliari.
He and cartoon band Dethklok played their only 2011 date at the Mayhem Festival in San Bernadino on July 9. His 2011 album Bakin’ at the Potato is a 16-song concert collaboration with bassist Bryan Beller. A 20-song DVD version was also released.
Mike Keneally Band Tour Dates:
October 12: Don Quixote's International Music Hall, Felton, CA
October 13: Biscuits & Blues, San Francisco, CA
October 14: Music Max, Palo Cedro (Redding), CA
October 15: Humbrew's, Arcata, CA
October 17: Mt. Tabor Theater, Portland, OR
October 18: The Rendezvous, Seattle, WA
October 21: Winstons, San Diego (Ocean Beach), CA
October 22: The Baked Potato, Studio City, CA
October 23: HOUSE CONCERT: Anaheim, CA
Mike Keneally is set to launch his first West Coast full-band tour in years, bringing his inventive musical vision to nine cities in October in support of the Keneally Band's latest Exowax Recordings DVD/CD live release, Bakin' @ the Potato.
They'll hit San Diego to play Winston's in OB on October 21.
In a unique twist, this tour’s Mike Keneally Band members also comprise the opening act, the Beller Band. The group includes Keneally’s longtime bassist Bryan Beller (Steve Vai, Dethklok), whose intricate jazz/rock compositions and tasteful playing earned his third and latest album Wednesday Night Live widespread acclaim.
The Keneally/Beller Band West Coast 2011 Tour features Keneally, Beller, drummer Joe Travers (Zappa Plays Zappa), and guitarists Rick Musallam (Ben Taylor, Byrd York) and Griff Peters (Billie Myers, Anika Paris).
Mike Keneally was fronting local band Drop Control when the invitation came in 1987 to join Frank Zappa’s touring band as a “stunt guitarist,” replacing Steve Vai.
“The multivolume work I’m doing now, Scambot, shows a lot of Frank’s influence,” says Keneally. “Frank’s presence has been exerting itself in my life a lot lately…I’ve been listening to his music in the car for several months.”
Asked to describe his music, Keneally says “It’s essentially rock, with equal emphasis on improvisation and strictly composed things. There’s a lot of guitar in it. I’m mainly known as a guitarist, although keyboard was my first instrument, and I play a lot of different instruments on my recordings. Dynamically, melodically, rhythmically, and lyrically, it’s real diverse and eclectic. I love a lot of different musical styles, and it all gets mashed in.”
Keneally has released nine albums of original music since 1992 and has shared the stage with Screamin’ Jay Hawkins, Robert Fripp, Negativland, Wayne Kramer, Solomon Burke, Sting, the Persuasions, and the Loud Family.
“I play so much, I’m always finding stuff I forgot at RadioKeneally.com,” he admits. “Like unreleased songs from my live shows which I’ve only heard once and then forgotten about. Any one of our shows is distinct from any other, so listening reminds me of onstage happenings which otherwise would have slipped my mind, like spontaneous Monkees covers or microtonal broken-string guitar solos and improvisations.”
Keneally has another secret identity: he sometimes becomes a heavy metal cartoon character, in order to tour with Dethklok, based on the Cartoon Network TV show Metalocalypse.
“We don’t dress to resemble the cartoon,” he says, “because we’ve got three projection screens with animation going during the show, similar to the band Gorillaz, showing the cartoon band ‘performing’ the music we’re playing onstage...the drummer wears headphones so that the live band stays synched to the visuals. The band dresses all in black and stays mostly in the shadows until the last song, when the cartoon band goes away and the live band is flooded with white light.”
Keneally landed the ’toon gig by contacting Metalocalypse creator/songwriter Brendon Small via MySpace.
“[I told] him that my girlfriend and I were big fans of his first show, Home Movies. He wrote back to say he was a huge fan of mine too, having seen me play live in 1996 when he was a student at Berklee College of Music in Boston...When the Dethklok album of music from the TV show came out and proved to be such a surprising success, there was a need for a live show and a live band to play it, so he asked me and my bass player, Bryan Beller, if we would join forces with him and legendary metal drummer Gene Hoglan.”
Keneally’s 2009 album Wine and Pickles is a collection of obscure studio tracks from 1998 to 2006. His newly formed trio Keneally Minnemann Beller made a splash at their January 16, 2009, performance at the NAMM show (National Association of Music Merchants), and a songwriting collaboration is in the works between Keneally and XTC’s Andy Partridge.
In September 2010, at the Adams Avenue Street Fair, he covered for absent ex-Megadeth guitarist Chris Poland when the band OHM appeared on the Lestat’s Stage. Poland had to bow out due to medical issues. The band also includes drummer Kofi Baker (son of Cream drummer Ginger Baker) and bassist Robert Pagliari.
He and cartoon band Dethklok played their only 2011 date at the Mayhem Festival in San Bernadino on July 9. His 2011 album Bakin’ at the Potato is a 16-song concert collaboration with bassist Bryan Beller. A 20-song DVD version was also released.
Mike Keneally Band Tour Dates:
October 12: Don Quixote's International Music Hall, Felton, CA
October 13: Biscuits & Blues, San Francisco, CA
October 14: Music Max, Palo Cedro (Redding), CA
October 15: Humbrew's, Arcata, CA
October 17: Mt. Tabor Theater, Portland, OR
October 18: The Rendezvous, Seattle, WA
October 21: Winstons, San Diego (Ocean Beach), CA
October 22: The Baked Potato, Studio City, CA
October 23: HOUSE CONCERT: Anaheim, CA