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Mike Keneally & Beer For Dolphins To Play Five Southern California Shows In January

Album, Live, News

Happy new year, beautiful people!

I’ve got a new album coming out in February, and we’re going to do some shows to celebrate that.

The album is called The Thing That Knowledge Can’t Eat, and I’ll be back here soon with some pre-order information about it so you can buy the thing online.

But, if you should happen to be in Southern California for any of the following shows, you can buy the CD at the merch table several weeks before the official release date. Plus you get to see a smokin’ Beer For Dolphins show.

Mike Keneally & Beer For Dolphins for the purposes of these January 2023 shows consist of:
Mike Keneally
Rick Musallam
Pete Griffin
Joe Travers
(with a special appearance by Griff Peters at the Escondido gig on Friday the 13th).

Bryan Beller is unavailable to perform for secret reasons. I am immensely grateful that Pete is willing to learn a LOT of hard bass parts in order to make it possible for me to do these shows.

The Escondido show will be the official Album Release Party gig for The Thing That Knowledge Can’t Eat. There will be a Q + A period, and I will dance with merry abandon in celebration of the fact that the album is finally coming out!

Friday Jan. 13th: the official Album Release Party gig for The Thing That Knowledge Can’t Eat

We are playing songs from all twelve of my major albums (hat., Boil That Dust Speck, Sluggo!, Nonkertompf, Dancing, Wooden Smoke, Dog, Scambot 1, Wing Beat Fantastic, You Must Be This Tall, Scambot 2, The Thing That Knowledge Can’t Eat – the primary canon, not counting bonus discs and live albums and the like) at these shows, the closest thing to a retrospective show I’ve ever presented.

The wonderful Travis Larson Band will be with us on all of the dates, I’m delighted to say!

The five dates are these:
Jan 13 – The Grand Ritz, Escondido (record release party/concert for The Thing That Knowledge Can’t Eat) – 7pm | Tickets
Jan 14 – Alvas Showroom, San Pedro – 7pm | Tickets 
Jan 15 – Alvas Showroom, San Pedro – 4pm | Tickets
Jan 16 – The Siren, Morro Bay – 6:30pm | Tickets
Jan 17 – The Baked Potato, LA – two sets, 8 and 10pm | Tickets

MIKE KENEALLY & BEER FOR DOLPHINS TO PLAY FIVE SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA SHOWS IN JANUARY

The Zappa Band has a batch of shows coming up…

Live, News

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!

Mike Keneally & Beer For Dolphins return to The Baked Potato in July

Live, News

I can hardly believe this is even true, after so many months of no gigs, but I’m gonna do a two-night stand at the Baked Potato in LA on July 16 and 17, with Beer For Dolphins. Two sets each night. Hours of music and memories for the discerning connoisseur. (Did I actually spell connoisseur right? Dang.)

BFD in this instance is the five-piece bakin’ @ the potato! model, with Joe Travers, Griff Peters, Rick Musallam and Bryan Beller. THAT tidy ensemble. I can’t even tell you how excited I am to play with these guys again, for actual people.

Gonna premiere a couple of tunes from the new solo album in the works, and I’ve worked out the set lists and have arranged for a nice variety of tunes from night to night for you, so if you decide to get tickets to all four sets, you will receive a sparkling variety. Actually hold on a sec and I’ll count them for you. One…two…three…(edit) well it looks like no less than THIRTY-THREE different tunes strewn over the four sets. That’s entertainment!

Here’s things to click which will take you to places where your tickets can be got:

July 16: thebakedpotato.com/events/mike-keneally-beer-for-dolphins-friday-july-16-2021/

July 17: thebakedpotato.com/events/mike-keneally-beer-for-dolphins-saturday-july-17-2021/

And don’t forget!

Important note for anyone coming to the BFD gigs July 16/17 – I’m not sure it says anything on the Baked Potato site about this, but in order to get in the venue you’ll need either proof of vaccination, or a negative COVID test within 72 hours of entry – please be aware. Thanks!