Mike Viola books a February night at JD's Stage Bistro in Chelsea

The songwriter who sang "That Thing You Do!" plays Jeff Daniels' small Main Street room on Thursday, Feb. 25 — tickets are $25.

Picture a room of about a hundred people, a corner stage, and the voice from a song half the country can still hum. That is the pitch for Thursday, Feb. 25, 2027, when Mike Viola plays JD's Stage Bistro in Chelsea. The show starts at 7 p.m., tickets are $25 through Prekindle, and the date went public on Oct. 20.

If the name doesn't ring a bell, the song probably will. Viola co-wrote the title song for Tom Hanks' 1996 film *That Thing You Do!* with Adam Schlesinger and sang it; credited to the movie's fictional band the Wonders, it reached No. 41 on the Billboard Hot 100 and was nominated for both a Golden Globe and an Academy Award. Before and after that, he fronted the Candy Butchers, a band that started as a duo playing around New York in the mid-'90s, and the soundtrack work turned into a long second career as a producer and studio musician.

The voice from a song half the country can still hum, in a room built for about a hundred.

His own records keep coming. His most recent album is 2024's *Rock of Boston*, and in a January interview he said he planned to release a new album this year alongside *Superkid*, a book of photographs from his years as a musician in Boston. That same month he was on the road opening for Madison Cunningham in Austin, and his 2026 calendar has run from Cleveland's Beachland Ballroom in February to club dates in the UK this fall.

Chelsea is a particular kind of stop for a songwriter like that. JD's Stage Bistro sits at 117½ S. Main Street, a few steps from the Purple Rose Theatre, and actor Jeff Daniels — a Chelsea guy, and a working songwriter himself — is a partner in it. The plan from the start was a restaurant on one side and a listening room on the other: a wood-fired oven and cocktail bar in the brighter bistro, and a darker stage room with cabaret seating, a corner stage and acoustics built for exactly this kind of night. Early reports put the room at about 100 seats.

That is roughly half the size of the rooms Viola usually headlines, which is the point. This is a show for people who want to hear how a pop song is put together, from someone who has done it for other people for three decades, close enough to see his hands on the guitar. Ann Arbor folks who already make the drive out M-52 for the Purple Rose know the routine: dinner on Main Street, a show, home before midnight.

The practical stuff: it's a Thursday in late February, so plan for Michigan weather on the drive. With a room that small, $25 tickets are likely to go well before the night, so if this is on your list, don't wait until February.

And if all you know is the one song, that's fine. Go hear the guy who wrote it sing it in a room where you can see him do it.

Sources: Mike Viola – official site (mikeviola.com); Mike Viola tickets – Prekindle (prekindle.com); Mike Viola captivates crowd, opens for Madison Cunningham at 04 Center – The Daily Texan (thedailytexan.com); Mike Viola – The State Theatre (thestatetheatre.org); Mike Viola – TMBW wiki (tmbw.net); You Ought to Be in Pictures: The Ballad of Mike Viola – American Songwriter (americansongwriter.com); That Thing He Does – Village Voice (villagevoice.com); The Wonders – Last.fm (last.fm); JD's Stage Bistro: Updates on Jeff Daniels' New Venue – The Current (ecurrent.com); Jeff Daniels is partner in new music venue and restaurant under construction in Chelsea (jeffdaniels.com); Mike Viola at Beachland Ballroom – JamBase/listing (jambase.com); Mike Viola – The Trades Club (thetradesclub.com)