THE KENEALLIST: New release! Mike Keneally & Friends – Live Adventures in Europe!
Yoba! Floon! You know what I mean?
MKAF ‘03
Mike Keneally & Friends
Live Adventures in Europe
COMES TO BANDCAMP
THIS FRIDAY, DECEMBER 5!
This link to MKAF ‘03 goes live at 11:59 p.m. PST this Thursday night, December 4!
But RIGHT NOW, you can click here for a bunch more MK titles…
What is MKAF ‘03? Here’s some background:
Since the early ‘00s, concurrent with my Beer for Dolphins activities and the other stuff I get involved with, I’ve also had what I guess you could call my European Power Trio, consisting of me, Jaan Wessman (who lives in Finland) on bass, and Schroeder (who lives in Germany) on drums. We play when we can – three years ago we did the Zappanale Festival in Germany, and last year we played a few shows in Finland. I dearly love any opportunity to play with these guys – it’s a very special, and not widely known, part of my life and music.
Since 2016 we’ve been called The Mike Keneally Report, but when we started doing shows in 2002, and up until 2004, we were called MIKE KENEALLY & FRIENDS.
In 2003
The year, 2003
I played in Finland
And Germanyy*
The drummer was Schroeder
Unstoppable force
Jaan Wessman on bass
Was fantastic, of course
And though this darned poem’s now done
You’ve only just barely begun
To learn of the marvelous fun
Whiiiiich iiiiiiiis…
MKAF ‘03!
*extra “y” to indicate unnatural emphasis on final syllable.
The core of what was expressed in the horrible poem above is entirely accurate – in 2003, we did about a week and a half’s worth of gigs in Finland and Germany. We also did some recording in Schroeder’s home studio while I was there.
We had a fantastic time, and at the end of it all we had generated a pile of recordings documenting these various events.
Schroeder took those recordings into his home studio. With great vigor and imagination, he created a 3-CD compilation of the best of the gigs and studio happenings. Each of the three CDs consisted of a mostly uninterrupted flow of music, with extremely creative segues connecting each song to the next. (Sometimes there is a pause in the action, and his choices of when to deploy silence were as creative and effective as his segues.) He also snipped improv sections out of songs and turned them into their own selections, overdubbed percussion and other things onto a few of the live recordings, and employed various other audio techniques with immense thoughtfulness.
Schroeder named this collection MKAF ‘03, and it’s a really vital and comprehensive document of what Mike Keneally & Friends got up to in Europe during that March of 2003.
He sent me the 3-CD set way back in 2003. I listened to it and I loved it, but I didn’t think about doing anything publicly with it until a few months ago, when I started sharing a few tracks from it on my Patreon page. It kinda blew my mind hearing those tracks again. Schroeder and Jaan are consistently fantastic, and the two of them bring something out in my own playing that only ever seems to come out in the context of this band. Also, Schroeder did incredibly well in choosing really good versions of songs to include.
It’s a lot of music – 33 tracks, three hours – and it’s more of an archive, a document, than it is a standard “live album.” The sonics change as it travels from gig to studio to gig, practically turning it into a travel documentary – you can feel the unique characteristics of each room and each stage.
I did some remastering last month to eleven of the tracks, and some editing to one of them (at Schroeder’s suggestion), and we’ve created an exhaustive .pdf file to go with the download, with reminiscences from Jaan, Schroeder and myself, as well as from Claude Kuhnen (our dear friend and original booking agent). Additionally, there’s song-by-song commentary from all three band members. It’s a lot of reading, to go with a lot of music!
I really love it, and consider it a gift that I found this thing, created so lovingly by Schroeder all those years ago, waiting patiently for me in this drawer right here. I’m awfully happy to be sharing it with you now, finally.
The video above (kindly assembled by Claude Kuhnen) contains some music NOT included in MKAF ‘03, just so you know. Also, MKAF ‘03 is audio-only and contains no video. Just so you know!
As you likely know, because I mention it every time we do this, Bandcamp Friday is the occasional day when the Bandcamp service forgoes their usual percentage of income, with all of it going to the artists and labels. We at Exowax are very grateful for your continuing response to our Bandcamp Friday releases, and we very much hope you enjoy this new one a lot!
MK/BFD at the BAKED POTATO in LA on JANUARY 20/21, 2026
We’re coming back! The BFD quartet (me, Bryan Beller, Rick Musallam, Joe Travers) are returning to the Baked Potato January 20 and 21. These are immediately before the beginning of the NAMM Show in Anaheim, so if you happen to be in SoCal around then for NAMM-ish activities, you ought to come see us play.
Two sets each night! Here are the ticket links (replete with some really exciting misspellings of nearly all of the band members – part of the charm of this venue for decades now):
FURTHER LIVE MUSICAL ACTIVITY COMING IN 2026:
EDDIE JOBSON/U.K REVISITED in JAPAN and on CRUISE TO THE EDGE
Eddie Jobson: keyboards
Mike Keneally: guitar
Marc Bonilla: bass and vocal
Marco Minnemann: drums
- Feb. 24, 2026 — Billboard Live, Tokyo
- Feb. 25, 2026 — Billboard Live, Yokohama
- Feb. 26, 2026 — Billboard Live, Tokyo
- Feb. 27, 2026 — Billboard Live, Osaka
Not sure where the optimum ticket links to these Japan gigs are, but with a little poking around I’m sure you can find them.
Rehearsal with Eddie and Marc a few weeks ago was fantastic fun. Learning all of the Holdsworth parts from the debut U.K. has been brutally challenging, but hugely rewarding – it feels amazing to get these iconic parts under my fingers, and I can feel that it’s already had an extremely positive effect on my playing in general. I’m starting to feel like a real grown-up guitarist!
We’re also playing on Cruise to the Edge in March:
Cruise to the Edge Miami – Key West – Nassau March 4-9, 2026
(booking info is here.)
This will be my first time on the cruise in four years. I had the best time in 2022 and am really excited to be back on the boat with so many amazing acts (including Marillion, Steve Hackett, Big Big Train, Adrian Belew, Lifesigns, Stick Men, Pete Roth Trio featuring Bill Bruford, and a whole bunch more greatness). We’re playing two sets during the cruise, don’t know which days exactly yet, but the schedule will be announced at some point. See you on the boat!
The music on the original U.K. albums was a major component of my formative musical years; I really love these songs and it’s an incredible honor to have been invited by Eddie to play them with him and this fantastic band.
200 MOTELS in GENEVA in JUNE 2026
I’m also immensely grateful to have been invited to perform Frank Zappa’s 200 Motels in Geneva next year, as a special guest with the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, the Chœur du Grand Théâtre de Genève, the HEM percussion ensemble, and a fantastic organ/bass/drums trio called Steamboat Switzerland – myself and Steamboat will be the “rock band” for this presentation, and it’s gonna kill.
This is the version of 200 Motels that was originally performed at the Holland Festival in 2000, a legendary performance, and one which I believe incorporates much of the writing that wasn’t heard in the original soundtrack album, but which was later released on the 200 Motels: The Suites 2-CD release in 2015 (an album I really love – the version of “The Pleated Gazelle” on that album is one of my favorite recordings of Zappa music ever).
It’s happening at the Bâtiment des Forces Motrices on the following days and times:
- June 18 and 20, 2026 – 8PM
- June 21 and 28, 2026 – 3PM
- June 23 and 25*, 2026 – 7PM
*Glam Night
The 25th is Glam Night! You gotta come on that night and get all fancied up! See you there. Here’s all the info.
BANNED FROM UTOPIA EUROPEAN TOUR OCTOBER 2026
As you may have heard, our dear friend Robert Martin (a co-founder of the Zappa-playing group Banned From Utopia) has had medical issues in recent months which have rendered him unable to perform. I dearly hope that these issues are resolved and that soon he’s able to play again.
Jamie Kime has invited me to play keyboards and guitar with Banned From Utopia on their October 2026 European tour. A tight little quintet: Chad Wackerman, Scott Thunes, Ray White, Jamie Kime and myself. Literally nothing would make me happier than for Robert to join us. In any case, my performances on this tour will be dedicated to Robert. And I haven’t played with Scott and Chad at the same time since 1988; I am utterly psyched about that.
WAY too many shows/ticket links to post here – just look at this poster for the show dates, and I hope to see a whole enormous bunch of my European pals at these gigs!
RECENT THINGS WITH ME ON THE INTERNET
Quick rundown of things online that somehow involve me:
Brand new interview with me and Paul Riario on GUITAR WORLD magazine’s YouTube channel – hugely fun interview, thank you Paul! I haven’t watched it yet (just went online) but I had a great time doing it:
Highly candid interview with Banner Driskell – this dude really pulled a lot out of me, excellent interviewer – get ready for a deep dive.
Niels Guns – Sixty Scales and the Truth interview – I did this when I was in Groningen with Devin Townsend six months ago, can’t remember if I told you about it before now, but here it is just in case – Niels is another great interviewer and this was great fun.
Archived livestream of MK/BFD’s set at Reggie’s in Chicago on October 18 – this was a magical night for me, I loved this show. Hopefully this video captures some of the feeling in the room.
Interview with Meagan Panici on WZRD Chicago – did this interview while stuck in traffic on the way to a gig on the MK/BFD October tour a couple of days before the Chicago show, interesting circumstances to do an interview during and I enjoyed it a lot.
And a passel of print pieces…
Three different edits of an interview I did with dear friend Anne Leighton:
A really nice review of MK/BFD’s recent NYC Cutting Room gig, by ol’ pal Max Kutner of The Android Trio.
And finally, I was interviewed for this piece about the very lovely Allen Theatre in Annville, PA, where MK/BFD recently played – if you’re anywhere near this theater and you haven’t been there yet, it should be on your radar, it’s a great place with an excellent record shop/coffee shop in the lobby and I hope to play there again someday.
That’s more than enough for now! The happiest of holidays to you! Thank you and more soon! ‘Bye now!
Love,
This link to MKAF ‘03 goes live at 11:59 p.m. PST this Thursday night, December 4!
In the meantime, you can click here for 37,000 other MK masterworks!
