450. How Michael Robert Kelly ended up playing in The Violent Femmes

450. How Michael Robert Kelly ended up playing in The Violent Femmes

From Blowing Smoke with Twisted Rico by Steev Riccardo

April 13, 2026 · 1h 9m · Season 1 · Episode 450

About this episode

Michael Robert Kelly shares his journey of stepping in as a bass player for The Violent Femmes after a band member's accident.

Michael Robert Kelly is the guy you call when your band needs a bass player. In addition to fronting his own project, The Brother Stereo, he's stepped in for his brother Matt's band, the Dropkick Murphys, and logged a ton of shows with the legendary James Montgomery Band. Most recently, while on tour with the Violent Femmes as Brian Ritchie's bass tech, Kelly got the call to fill in after Ritchie suffered a serious bicycle accident. He tells us the whole story. Music clips from: The Charms, The Dogmatics, The Zulus, Blame It On Whitman, The Long Wait, and The Outlets Produced and Hosted by Steev Riccardo

People in this episode

Host: Steev Riccardo

Guest: Michael Robert Kelly

Topics covered

  • music
  • bass playing
  • band dynamics
  • touring
  • musical collaborations

Keywords

  • Michael Robert Kelly
  • The Violent Femmes
  • bass player
  • music tour
  • band
  • Dropkick Murphys
  • James Montgomery Band

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: The Violent Femmes, The Brother Stereo, Dropkick Murphys, James Montgomery Band, The Charms, The Dogmatics, The Zulus, Blame It On Whitman, The Long Wait, The Outlets

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