MIKE VIOLA
Ticket(s)
Event Details
Producer, musician, singer and songwriter, Mike Viola is best known for his work with Panic! at the Disco, Andrew Bird, Ryan Adams, J.S. Ondara, Mandy Moore, and Jenny Lewis. His original music has been featured on soundtracks for movies such as That Thing You Do!, Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story, and Get Him to the Greek.
Viola, along with friend Adam Schlesinger of Fountains of Wayne, co-produced the title track for Tom Hanks's 1996 movie That Thing You Do! The selection received an Oscar nomination for Best Original Song. Viola sang lead on the track, and as the accepted singing voice of Johnathon Schaech's character, Jimmy, also sang on other tracks in the film, such as "Little Wild One" and "All My Only Dreams."
In addition to his numerous solo albums, Mike Viola fronts the Candy Butchers. His current release is the album Paul McCarthy.
The Old Roslyn address 19 Bryant Avenue resonates with musical legend and history. Originally a country-western bar owned by Jay Lenihan, the place was bought by partners Michael “Eppy” Epstein and his cousin Richie Hersh in 1971. After teaming up with local radio station WLIR-FM, My Father’s Place—affectionately known as MFP—quickly became a hotbed for concerts and concert broadcasts. MFP presented Billy Joel’s first show after the release of his debut solo LP Cold Spring Harbor and Bruce Springsteen’s first show out of New Jersey, along with seminal radio concerts (including a classic by Lowell George and Little Feat in 1974). The venue kept live performance vital when the rest of Long Island—and perhaps the country—was discoing the night away. Besides reggae, punk music found a place to grow. Unlike most other clubs that highlighted one genre or one particular era of music, the variety of My Father's Place was possibly its most important trait. The club debuted in America most of reggae's biggest stars, helping to make the genre mainstream. Along with CBGB and Max's Kansas City, My Father's Place was a nurturing ground for young punk and new wave acts like The Runaways, The Ramones, Blondie, The Police, and Talking Heads. Country, bluegrass, and blues artists like Charlie Daniels, Linda Ronstadt, and Stevie Ray Vaughan performed early in their careers, while artists like James Brown, B.B. King, Johnny Winter and Bo Diddley played in the twilight of theirs.. My Father’s Place closed on May 3, 1987, with a blowout performance by the funk rock band Tower of Power, and an era came to an end. Today, the club lives on in the works of the many artists—now legends—who first performed on its stage and in the memories of those fortunate to have been a part of it all.