The Official Mike Keneally Website

Hello from Lost Angeles! It’s October 30 as I write and tonight is the second of three Banned From Utopia shows at the Baked Potato in Los Angeles. The European tour we just finished was hugely demanding – virtually no time off to speak of – but incredibly rewarding in terms of audience response and the quality of the music coming off the stage. I love these guys (Ray White, Chad Wackerman, Scott Thunes and Jamie Kime) so much, and if this turns out to be the last time this particular aggregate tours I will always be intensely grateful for this experience. Last night at the Potato was powerful too. Pretty soon I have to go there for night two, but before I do I gotta tell you about some stuff…

VAI PIANO REDUCTIONS VOL. 1 COMES TO BANDCAMP!
(WITH AN UNRELEASED 19-MINUTE-LONG BONUS TRACK!)

Vai Piano Reductions Vol. 1 Performed by Mike Keneally goes on sale this Bandcamp Friday, November 6! And please attempt to absorb all the other magic music that you can enjoy right now at Bandcamp!

Not too long ago, Scott Chatfield and Chris Opperman (two-thirds of the Exowax brain trust) mused aloud about whether Steve Vai might let us put Vai Piano Reductions Vol. 1 on our Bandcamp page. This 2004 album of my solo piano recordings of eleven of Steve’s songs, chosen by Steve and arranged by me, was originally released on Steve’s label Favored Nations. I told them that, as generous and kind as Steve is, I found it hard to believe that he would just hand us the album like that. Chris boldly contacted Steve about it, and he essentially responded “so you’re saying can you put this album, which I own, on Mike’s Bandcamp page, without me taking a cut of the proceeds?” To which Chris responded “yeah!” And Steve’s response to that was, “sure, anything for Mike.”

Jeez!! What a guy!!

And so it is thanks to Steve’s generosity, and Scott’s and Chris’ mighty boldness and searing vision, that we now present Vai Piano Reductions Vol. 1 to you, an album which means so much to me. 

I’ve remarked often, including in the original album liner notes, that this was the hardest album to make for me of all the albums I’ve recorded, and 22 years later this remains the truth. Solo piano is a wickedly naked and revealing musical format, and Steve’s music does something to my soul while arranging and practicing it that feels like the closest I’ve ever come to a really demanding spiritual practice, like sitting on top of a mountain for four years not speaking, or praying incessantly for hours at a time while someone whacks me in the back of the head with a two-by-four. It is that psychically demanding to me, but the ultimate result – this album – ended up being one of the things from my career that I point to with the greatest humility and gratitude and say, “wow, yeah…I did this thing.” 

Steve chose the songs for me to arrange, in early 1998. Over the course of quite a few months we had an ongoing process of me working on the arrangements at home in San Diego, driving up to LA to play those arrangements for Steve and receive his input, heading back down to San Diego to go into Signature Sound recording studio with Mike Harris engineering and play the arrangements on the beautiful Yamaha grand piano there (the same piano/studio/engineer combination I had recently employed extensively on the Sluggo! album), recording onto analog tape, and then bringing those big ol’ tape reels (featuring multiple takes of all the songs) back up to LA for Steve to assess and edit together his favorite sections into the final master versions. This editing process took him a number of years to complete, given his own challenging schedule, and the final album was released in 2004, six years after the tracks were recorded.

The album occupies a special place in my album catalogue – I’ve never done anything else like it. Steve’s music really drew a lot out of me, as it was very important to me to treat it with the greatest respect. I feel that Steve deserves a lot of attention as a composer, but that his astonishing skill on the guitar sometimes gets in the way of exactly what he’s doing in stringing those notes together. Solo piano is an excellent platform for presenting the essence of those notes, and it was an extreme honor and privilege for me to take on that job. Most importantly to me, Steve himself was pleased with what I was able to do. Many people over the years have also had kind things to say about the album, and I’m so grateful to be able to make it a part of our online Bandcamp catalogue.

I’m just as pleased to be able to present quite a unique bonus track, exclusive to this Bandcamp release: “’Oooo/Under it All’ Practice Session,” a nearly 19-minute rehearsal recording of me practicing my solo piano arrangements for these two epic Vai compositions. These songs were intended for what was going to be an upcoming Vai Piano Reductions Vol. 2 arranged and performed by me. As it turned out, between other work obligations, and the psychic toll it took on me to arrange and play these two pieces alone, it ultimately became clear to me that I would not be able to make that album, and I regrettably dropped out of the project, with Steve’s very kind understanding and acceptance. (A few years later he would release a very different Vai Piano Reductions Vol. 2, as arranged and performed by the brilliant Miho Arai, which made me very happy indeed.)

So this rehearsal recording, as captured by my phone voice memo app (and featuring me singing as well as playing), is now the only remnant of what would have been my version of Piano Vol. 2.

The Bandcamp download features a pdf booklet containing all the original album art, plus more extensive musings from me on the story of the lengthy bonus track, and the never-finished Keneally version of the second piano album.

We’re very happy to bring you this album for Bandcamp Friday, and we welcome you to check out our entire Bandcamp catalogue on this special day, when the Bandcamp platform takes no cut of revenue received – all money on BC Friday goes straight to the artists and labels. Please give it a look if you can, and we thank you so much for doing so.

THE MIKE KENEALLY REPORT, WITH DAVE CURETON’S BAND ALSO ON THE BILL – UK/NETHERLANDS TOUR NOV/DEC 2026

My final touring activity of the year brings me to the Netherlands and the UK for seven shows with my dear friends Jaan Wessman and Schroeder – The Mike Keneally Report – double-billed with the incendiary guitarist Dave Cureton (of I/O Earth) with his solo band. These will be fiery performances, heavily guitar-focused (although I’ll still pound on the piano here and there), and I think it’s the first time I’ve done a tour of more than three performances of my own music outside of the US in quite some time. Mounting even a short tour of this nature involves quite an expenditure of time, energy, and cashola, so if it’s possible for you and some of your music-loving pals to make it to any of these shows, we very much appreciate your patronage. And – please! – spread the word!!

NIGHT & DAY CAFE in Manchester, UK Nov. 30
THE FLAPPER in Birmingham, UK Dec. 1 
DE BOERDERIJ in Zoetermeer, NL Dec. 3 
CACAOFABRIEK in Helmond, NL Dec. 4 
SIDNEY & MATILDA in Sheffield, UK Dec. 7 
THE 1865 in Southampton, UK Dec. 8
TRADING BOUNDARIES in Fletching, UK Dec. 9

Thanks so much everyone! It’s been an eventful year, with more events to come – I really hope to see a bunch of you out on the road, and hope also that you all have a truly joyful holiday season over the next couple of months – I’m sending very much love to you all. See you soon!

Gratitudinally,

P.S. VOTE!

Vai Piano Reductions Vol. 1 Performed by Mike Keneally goes on sale this Bandcamp Friday, November 6! And we invite you to shop all the other tasty MK treats that you can enjoy right now at Bandcamp!

Sign up for The Keneallist

Copyright (C) 2026 Exowax Recordings. All rights reserved.

Mike’s frolicking across Europe right now (see dates below), and he left it up to us Exo-lackeys to let you know about a massively significant highlight of the entire Keneally Katalog that’s coming to Bandcamp Friday TODAY. Namely, the now out-of-print

DANCING & DANCING WITH MYSELF!

Dancing & Dancing with Myself goes on sale TODAY, Bandcamp Friday, October 2! And you won’t believe all the other tasty MK treats that you can enjoy right now at Bandcamp!

It’s  Bandcamp Friday, the day artists get ALL of the dough collected, we’re spotlighting one of the most expansive releases in the Mike Keneally catalog: the double-album pairing of Dancing & Dancing With Myself: Live and Acoustic at the Baked Potato.

Originally released in 2000, Dancing finds Mike and Beer For Dolphins operating at full power. Across 20 songs and nearly 80 minutes, the album ranges from exuberant pop and introspective balladry to free-form improvisation, ferocious rock, elaborate vocal arrangements and music that simply refuses to fit comfortably into a category.

Coming after the largely instrumental Nonkertompf, Dancing also put Mike’s songwriting and singing squarely back in the foreground. The album contains some of his most direct and emotional vocal performances, surrounded by the kind of musical detail, rhythmic invention and unexpected turns that have always made his records rewarding on repeated listens.

VH1’s Matt Resnicoff described the album as “a 20-song barrage of unhinged artistry,” singling out everything from the wild energy of “Ragged Ass” to the mysteries of the title track, the cinematic sweep of “Pretty Enough for Girls” and the remarkable rhythmic and melodic turns of “Joe.” His advice was wonderfully simple: “But do listen.”

The full Beer For Dolphins lineup gives Dancing a particularly rich and freewheeling character. Mike’s guitars, keyboards and vocals sit inside an ensemble sound capable of making abrupt transitions feel completely natural. Sweetness can turn into chaos, intricate composition into improvisation, and comedy into something surprisingly moving — sometimes within the same song.

Then there’s the second half of this package:

Dancing With Myself: Live and Acoustic at the Baked Potato was originally part of the now-sold-out Dancing Special Edition. Recorded in Hollywood in May 2000, the 73-minute performance presents many of the same songs in radically different form: Mike alone with piano and guitar, playing, singing, talking and reshaping the material in an intimate club setting.

The set includes “I Was Not Ready for You,” “Friends and Family,” “Joe,” “Live in Japan,” “Backwards Deb,” “Ankle Bracelet,” “Dancing,” “Pretty Enough for Girls,” “Only Mondays” and “Kedgeree,” along with “Lonely Man,” a song not included on the original Dancing studio album. As the show builds toward its conclusion, Mike is joined by his Beer For Dolphins bandmates.

Together, these two albums offer two remarkably different views of the same body of music: Dancing in its full-color, full-band studio incarnation, and Dancing With Myself stripped down to the songs, the instruments, the room and Mike himself.

If you already know Dancing, the live album lets you hear the material from an entirely different angle. If you don’t, this double set is one very good place to jump in.

Now here’s Mike himself from last month’s Keneallist, telling you about his current and future shows:

BANNED FROM UTOPIA – EUROPEAN TOUR SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER

Earlier this year, Jamie from Banned From Utopia got in touch to ask if I’d be willing to try and fill the gap in the band left by our dear brother Robert Martin’s present inability to perform due to medical reasons. Humbly I said I’d do my best. Couple weeks ago I did my first gigs as a member of Banned From Utopia at the Baked Potato. It was powerful, joyful, very intense, and the crowd response was off the charts.

Let me say first and foremost that all of my performances with this band go out into the world accompanied by my fierce respect and love for Robert Martin and I will do my best to make up for the enormous gap his absence leaves on the stage.  (I can’t sing even remotely like him but I’m playing a lot of keyboards, and doing whatever I can manage vocally.)

And also let me say that it means so much to me to be playing Zappa music with not only the treasure/force of nature that is Ray White, and the blazingly amazing Jamie Kime (who absolutely destroyed at the Potato gigs), but also it’s such a gift to be able to play with both Scott Thunes and Chad Wackerman at the same time – 38 years ago, at the end of the ‘88 Zappa tour, I believed that there was no way that this would ever be happening in this particular lifetime. But life does what life does and this is where we now find ourselves, and I can only shake my head in amazement and gratitude. The vibe in the band is fantastic. We are all pals and everyone’s playing beautifully.

There are too many shows on this European tour for this old dude to go hunting down all the ticket links. Check out the tour poster and see what shows you can make; I know you’ll find the tickets online, I believe in you. This web page may be of some help. I also hear that tickets purchased for the originally planned 2025 dates remain valid for the corresponding 2026 shows.This is gonna be a celebration, please come join us if you can.

MIKE KENEALLY REPORT with DAVE CURETON

UK/NETHERLANDS TOUR NOVEMBER/DECEMBER

Decorate your glamorious (yes I made up a word which combines glamorous and glorious! Try and stop me!) holiday season, oh ye denizens of the UK and the NL, with a minty fresh concert by me and the Report (Jaan Wessman and Schroeder), alongside the immensely fiery Dave Cureton (from IO Earth) and his solo band!

The idea for this tour was birthed backstage at ProgStock last year, either right before or right after I sat in with IO Earth, when Dave and his delightful manager Wendy Hagenbeek proposed it to me. I remember exactly where I was standing and the direction I was facing when they asked. My response was yes, and it still is.

I had an amazing time playing with Jaan and Schroeder in Freiburg a  few weeks ago – I love those guys so much – and the only sad part was that it was only one show wedged in between other obligations, but it completely whetted my appetite for these upcoming shows. We will play out 2026 in appropriate fashion – join us, woan chew?

NIGHT & DAY CAFE in Manchester, UK Nov. 30
THE FLAPPER in Birmingham, UK Dec. 1 
DE BOERDERIJ in Zoetermeer, NL Dec. 3 
CACAOFABRIEK in Helmond, NL Dec. 4 
SIDNEY & MATILDA in Sheffield, UK Dec. 7 
THE 1865 in Southampton, UK Dec. 8
TRADING BOUNDARIES in Fletching, UK Dec. 9

I love you and I thank you,

Dancing & Dancing with Myself goes on sale TODAY, Bandcamp Friday, October 2! And you won’t believe all the other tasty MK treats that you can enjoy right now at Bandcamp!

Sign up for The Keneallist

Copyright (C) 2026 Exowax Recordings. All rights reserved.