Mike Maimone
Red Room
1711 N Honore St (Side Door)
Chicago, IL 60622
Sep 7, 2023
8:00 PM CDT
I Was There
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About this concert
Piano-playing singer/songwriter Mike Maimone (also the frontman of garage rock trio Mutts) is set to release a touching album of covers that were meaningful throughout his relationship with the late Howard Bragman. Known as the "Gay Guru," Bragman's PR work was instrumental in creating visibility for LGBTQ+ individuals and causes from the 80s until he passed in 2023. Maimone will play his original music as well as selections from the new cover record, which includes "Something So Right" by Paul Simon, "Louisiana 1927" by Randy Newman, and "A Song For You" by Leon Russell. All proceeds will be donated to the Trevor Project.
This is Maimone's return run of shows after taking a nearly 2-year hiatus from performing. Pericarditis - the swelling of the lining of the heart - sidelined him in 2021 with chest pain and difficulty breathing. In early 2023, as he was getting ready to come back from that condition, his husband Howard Bragman passed away from Acute Monocytic Leukemia. He describes music as his therapy, and specifically, performing songs that were important to his husband as a tribute to honor the life of the man he loved.
Mike Maimone is a piano-playing singer/songwriter in the style of Leon Russell, Randy Newman, and Tom Waits. His music has been featured in film and TV, he has performed on late night shows and at major festivals, and famed venues from Hammerstein Ballroom in New York to the Fillmore in San Francisco.
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What fans are saying
Susan
September 8th 2023
Amazing artist, amazing venue (like being in a friend's living room), amazing show. Yes, I cried a little. And I was not the only one. It was an incredibly moving and rewarding evening of music.
Thanks for asking!!
Chicago, IL@Red Room
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Mike Maimone Biography
If searching for a shortcut portmanteau to encompass Nashville treasure and impeccable thirst trapper Mike Maimone, you could do worse than “Dr. John Grant,” melding the latter’s erudite social X-rays and queer queries with the former’s boisterous barroom piano promenades. But even amid the joyful mood roulette of Mookie’s Big Gay Mixtape, you get a feel for the emotional undertow that lurks just beyond some of the pleasant party vibes (“Unfollow” may be the catchiest dance-floor rendezvous about untangling social media with an ex) and the evening of scales (a gloriously menacing take on “Before He Cheats”). After the unexpected death of Maimone’s husband just before Mookie’s release, the ballads’ impact is harder, the party jams and interludes feel like safety valves, and a wrenching take on Tina Turner’s “Simply the Best” hits like Closing Time-era Tom Waits. JASON SHAWHAN, Nashville Scene
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