This July, renowned pop songwriters and frequent collaborators Adam Schlesinger (Fountains Of Wayne/Ivy/Tinted Windows) and Mike Viola (Candy Butchers) will be doing a few intimate shows together, performing songs from their respective albums as well as songs written for films and other projects.
Both writers have balanced their careers as recording artists with work as songwriters-for-hire, and both are skilled at mimicking various eras in pop history. In 1996, Viola sang and co-produced Schlesinger’s Beatlesque title track to Tom Hanks’ That Thing You Do. Recently, Viola wrote hilarious Britpop anthems for Russell Brand in Get Him To The Greek and many of the pseudo-classics featured in Judd Apatow’s music biopic parody Walk Hard. Schlesinger’s songs were featured in the Hugh Grant/Drew Barrymore film Music And Lyrics, about the comeback attempt of a washed-up 80’s idol; he also won a Grammy and received an Emmy nomination for A Colbert Christmas: The Greatest Gift Of All!, as well as two Tony nominations for the Broadway version of John Waters’ rockabilly fable Cry-Baby.
Viola and Schlesinger will perform at Philadelphia’s Tin Angel on July 27, and at Joe’s Pub in NYC on July 29. They will also perform with the string quartet ETHEL as part of the Lincoln Center Out Of Doors series on July 28 (a show which will also feature Tom Verlaine, Juana Molina, and Dayna Kurtz).
Complete performance:
July 27 Tin Angel Philadelphia – 8:00 pm
July 28 Lincoln Center Out Of Doors NYC with ETHEL String Quartet – 7:30 pm
July 29 Joe’s Pub NYC – 11:30 pm