Massachusetts-born singer and producer Mike Viola got a record deal through legendary Los Angeles hustler and producer Kim Fowley when he was 13. As Viola told Tape Op writer Andy Reed in 2025, his mother mailed Fowley a cassette of his songs, and Fowley got him on the phone and flew him to California. Viola, who is 59, has a résumé that includes co-producing and singing the main song from the 1996 movie That Thing You Do! and producing the likes of Jenny Lewis and the duo of Madison Cunningham and Andrew Bird. On his own, Viola creates wide-ranging pop that draws from power pop and 1970s and ’80s rock, and he sometimes reminds me of a less sardonic Father John Misty. His 2024 album Rock of Boston is as eclectic as revisionist pop rock gets, with nods to everyone from the Eagles to The Beatles. Rock of Boston manages to be both programmatic and easy on the ears, and the title track is the record’s most obvious power-pop rip. Like Father John Misty, Viola is a joker who loves to tweak the forms he exploits, and Rock of Boston frames the sincerity with plenty of good jokes. Nashville’s Drumming Bird, whose 2025 release Roadkill Poetry was produced by Viola, will open.
7 p.m. at The Basement
1604 Eighth Ave. S.
