The Feral Housecats Gigography
Here you will find a wrap-up of every Feral Housecats gig. Told from my (Greg) memory. As I start this process on 7-21-26 we have just played show #102. So this may take a while! This will not be the “tell-all” that one day becomes a book about this band. But it will be a good reference source!
#1 July 16th, 2021. Magic House Farms. Greg McGill, Miles Curtiss
It starts here. Magic House Farms was a small urban co-op farm in Franklinton. We played with Sugar Ghost. Our line-up was just two dudes with guitars. I don't recall the whole setlist, but I do recall we played “Gee, I Wish I Could Paint” “Space Rocks N' Schlitz” “Theme For An Feral Housecat” “Foot Draggin' ” “No More Martians” at least one Marvin The Robot song, and “Pablo Picasso”. We were terrible. It was awesome. I played a Fender Strat. Notable happenings for the future….I met Benjamin Lamb of Sugar Ghost. And Sugar Ghost played a cover of a song I love…which gave me ideas. “Psycho” by Eddie Noack (and The Beasts Of Bourbon who I first heard it from)
Note: Technically I had played two times before this, billed as Feral Housecats. Those were both with Troy Kunkler on drums. But those were both 10 minute sets, so I don't include them in the count.
#2 October 30th, 2021. Weirdo Halloween at Dirty Dungarees. Greg McGill, Colette Mihocik, Darren Whiteker
First time with a band!!! Darren on drums, Colette on bass. This was a Halloween gig so we played all covers where I re-wrote the lyrics to make them cat related. Our first song was a medley of Gun Club songs where I played slide on my Schecter Hellraiser. Of course I got really excited and played way too fast! Settled down after that and play some Cramps, Link Wray. By now I've written cat-themed lyrics to “Psycho”. And we closed with a song that even now, 5 years later is some people's favorite. “Meow I Wanna Be Your Cat”. The whole performance is on Youtube if you really wanna see it! I played the Schecter and my brand new Gretsch 6120 Setzer Hot Rod. Not kidding…I cried a little at some point.
A couple notable lines. “I know there's probably 15-20 guitar players here who can play this better than me. But fuck you, mine's plugged in,” (right before “Rumble” er….."Catfight"). Then, in the car on the way home Colette asked me “Do you know what….time….is?” Anyway….around this time Darren and Colette had agreed to continue on in the band. They told me they'd stick with it for about a year or so and then they'd be off for van life!
#3 Jan 8th, 2022 MadLab Theatre Greg McGill, Jason Engle, Colette Mihocik, Darren Whiteker
Jason has joined us. He wants to be a bass player…but he had been unavailable for the Halloween gig (wives and their silly plans) so Colette stepped in. Well Jason…can you play guitar some? As for the gig…I planned a really cool two night event at MadLab. Three bands I was in were going to play. But a major surge in Covid infections canceled that. I made the choice to cancel….but still have whichever bands wished come down and play just for the camera. Therefore this entire performance is on youtube. And…when I watch it now I think we were terrible!!! But at the time I was so thrilled to be able to perform my songs with a full band. Played a lot of the songs that eventually became “Fall In Love With Trash”…including the first performance of “Murder In The Basement”. I played my 6120 Setzer Hot Rod
Notable moment for the future. One of the other groups that came down was Poison Door. Right as they were about to begin, lead singer James Whitehouse saw what was going on in the lobby and said into the mic “Pizza Is Here.”
#4 Feb. 12th, 2022 MadLab Theatre Greg McGill, Jason Engle, Colette Mihocik, Darren Whiteker
For me it felt like another first. First time the full band played my original songs in a public show. Played with Whistlebirds and Hail Bop Group (Darren and Colette's main group). I played the 6120 Hot Rod. Jason played my Schecter Ultra III and got the high E string stuck on a pickup screw for a while. Don't have or remember set list…but I know this is where we first played MF Sniper. I know some bits of footage exist but I don't know where!!
By this time I was really starting to believe we were creating a unique group. I started getting the following compliment “Your songs always seem to go off in a slightly weird spot…and after a moment I realize ‘oh yeah I see.It does make sense after all.’ ” Of course….I also realized I kind of sucked regarding my skills (singing. playing)!
This show is notable because David Evans (Plus Holly Evans and Jessika Dittler) saw us for the first time.
#5 March 7th, 2022 Jane-O-Rama Natalie's In Worthington Greg, Jason, Colette, Darren
Private gig. Jane was leaving her job at Natalie's and they threw a surprise party for her. Troy Kunkler invited us to play. Colette told me she was unavailable but late in the day she learned otherwise. Played the Gretsch 6120 Hot Rod. On our Youtube channel you can find a video of us playing “I Wanna Be Your Cat”. Pretty sure we played “Strong Bones” for the first time (But we called it “Another Milk” then).
This gig was memorable because we met two people that still support us to this day….Ty Landrum and Casey Schumacher. And….my friend Joe Yapp introduced me to good Non-Alcoholic beers. At this point, I had already been sober 5 years but I didn't know good N/A beers existed. Thank you Joe. I'm really sad you're gone (2025)
#6 March 15th, 2022. Eldorados Greg, Jason, Colette, Darren
The Eldorados Tuesday original band showcase. Of course there's usually one or two non-original bands there. Cuz the bar's gotta make some money! Played the 6120 Hot Rod of course. I believe we played PFL for the first time, and video exists of that either on youtube or instagram. I remember thinking the sound in there was really great (that opinion has been challenged heavily since!) But beyond that….I don't have too many memories of this gig. I was really proud that we played for a non-dismal sized crowd on a Tuesday. No one but me seemed to like the pizza that was part of our payment.
Anyway…got a big contingent of my former theatre cohorts (Wooz, Spiders, Colleen and others) to check us out. You know how it goes…they all told me we were great then never came to another show. Not Wooz…he's been a great supporter ever since. And Liz and Asher (Ezra were there). I later learned this caused some consternation amongst…well who cares about that!
#7 March 25th, 2022 Dirty Dungarees Greg, Jason, Colette, Darren
Back to Dirty D's on Troy Kunkler's invite. I remember nothing about our set. We played with Troy doing a solo set, and Carr and Company. I played my 6120 Hot Rod. This ended up being a huge night in our history for two reasons.
I met Evan Carr and David Lawler of Carr and Co., both of whom eventually became great frenz and future Housecats.
Darren and Colette had to leave right after we played (Headlined….as Darren said since we were last) to play a gif as Hail Bop Group. I went to watch them play. After they played Darren was talking to friend of his. I walked up to say hi. “JC, this is Greg, we're in another group too. Hey would you want another group for the fest?” And thus was I introduced to JC Alexander, Pointless Fest, and eventually the entire Chillicothe underground music community.
#8 June 18th, 2022 MadLab Theatre Greg, Jason, Colette, Darren
This was a two night event I put together to make up for the one that was canceled in January. “Scary Animals and Super Creatures” (get it?) Once again….can't remember too many specifics about our set. I played my 6120 Hot Rod. I probably thought we sounded awesome. We probably didn't. We likely debuted our cover of “Hello From Ohio” on this night. My other short-lived group “Tech Dino” played one night.
As usual, this is notable because of some of the people I met or got to know better. Debris (including future Housecats David Lawler and Evan Carr) played. Snake Oil Revival (including future Cat Daniel Stauffer) played. We had a great time. Decent crowd.
All our gigs at MadLab share one thing in common. Me and Eric Myers going down there and trying to figure out how to make the mics work. Someone else (different each time) claiming they're gonna handle technical issues and suddenly becoming unavailable. In short….every MadLab gig goes well even though at one point having a show at all seemed in question.
#9 July 16th, 2022 Pointless Fest Greg, Jason, Colette, Darren
Here we go!!! First time Feral Housecats ever played outside of Central Ohio at Chillicothe's Pointless Fest. The first night I went to just watch. I was surprised how many people there already knew who I was from the times we played with Hail Bop Group.
On the day of our show….I was terrified. If I'd have been told “Sorry, we're behind schedule so we have to cancel your performance,” I would have been relieved. But no…we played. And it was our best performance yet….both in quality onstage and audience reaction. Many videos can be found on Youtube…including maybe the only performance of an instrumental callled “Corvette”. Our performance of MF Sniper became our best promo video for the next few years! We really won over the crowd….which was the biggest crowd we'd ever performed for.
Afterwards a young woman made a big point to tell me how much she loved our performance. No…this ain't that kind of story!!! But this was the first such response I got from a stranger (that I can recall). This is why I claim Em Lampington is the first person to ever describe themselves as a Feral Housecats fan.
#10 July 24th, 2022 Magic House Farms Greg, Evan Carr
Here's a weird one. I don't think we called it Feral Housecats at the time…but I now consider it to be a Housecats gig. Back to Magic House Farms….this time with Evan Carr on drums and me on guitar and vocals. By this time Evan and I had been chatting and I think he had already agreed to be the Feral Housecats drummer once Darren and Colette left town. We played a whole selection of my songs…mostly Housecats…a Tech Dino song. Something else that never existed again. You know the drill. Hardly anyone came but David Lawler was there. Sometime around these days he'd told me “If you ever need a fill in guitarist let me know.” Noted!
We played with Steve Barrish and Kai McKenna
Anyway, the whole performance is on the Feral Housecats youtube channel if you ever wanna hear it. Of the incredibly low number of people there….some didn't like that we were a loud rock band. Turns out this wasn't the right venue for Feral Housecats but we did have two really cool experiences playing there.
#11 August 19, 2022 Dirtry Ds Greg, Jason, Colette, Darren
Another first. I consider this the first time a regular music venue gave me a night and said “Go for it.” All other gigs had been at someone else's invite…or a theatre I spent 20 years at!
This show was right after we released “MF Sniper” and “Space Rocks N' Schlitz” online. One audience member (long time theatre friend) made up an extra big Schlitz Can (bottle?) to present to me while we played. He did not show me his tits. My best buddy Gedas from Lithuania came to visit and saw the show!
We played with Forever Unknown and….someone else…I can't recall. Might have been Whistlebirds (it often was in those days!). I had seen Forever Unknown at ComFest and loved their energy and their crowd. I was hoping that would translate to this show but not to be. They drew some crowd for sure…and they weren't bad. I think they were down one member. Don't know why…but after the gig they could be seen having some serious talk with their manager. Ok the point is….when we play with someone good or successful (relative to us that is) it's no guarantee of….well anything. Anyone who can reliably draw a big crowd all the time….ain't gonna be playing with us at Dirty Ds!!!!
#12 October 7th, 2022 Jerry's West, Chillicothe Greg, Jason, Colette, Darren
Back to Chillicothe at invite from Black Hat Nation! We were the 2nd band and Black Hat played way longer than we're used to. It was explained to me at another gig…there's not many chances to play in Chillicothe so when the bands can they make the most of it. We played our set and ate some pretty awesome pizza. We definitely played a song called “Give The People What They Want” that's never been heard again. I'm sure I played the Hot Rod again. This might have been the first time we had our t-shirts available….and we sold a few (with signatures). Got to meet Em again and her husband Drew. She told me we needed more songs available on Spotify. And…well now we do!
Anyway…not a huge show but cool to play out of town again. The bartender was admiring our T-shirts and…well I gave her one. I won't deny that might have been cuz she was gorgeous!!!
#13 Oct. 15th, 2022 Rambling House Greg, Jason, Colette, Darren
We got to play Rambling House!!!! Many more of those to come. We played because Sean Woosley of Woosley Band invited us. Lou Poster W/Caitlin Kraus also played… and meeting Caitlin was great and has so far led to one more show (and hopefully more to come). We played one of our best shows to one of our best crowds yet. Still not an overwhelming huge crowd (will we ever have that?) Got a really nice video of us playing “Murder In The Basement” I played my Gretsch Historic 3156. Started off messy during “Cats Can Surf” because I didn't have the volume on my guitar turned up! But then again…we're the Feral Housecats, not the Pristine Perfect Sounding Housecats.
By this time we were kinda hitting a good stride. Which was great…and sad…as I knew the end of the Darren and Colette days was coming. The new lineup was assembled though. Danny Stauffer (whom I'd briefly played with in Exit Popes) had moved to town and agreed to be our guitar player, of course Evan Carr would be our drummer and Jason Engle was finally gonna get to play bass! Danny was at this gig…I believe it was the first time he had seen us play.
#14 Dec. 17th, 2022 Kafe Kerouac Greg, Jason, Colette, Darren
We played in…well basically a library! I think the lineup was Troy Kunkler solo, Debris, and us. There's a video somewhere that Sarah Carr took….well I think she was Sarah Andreas then! We almost certainly debuted the song “That's What You Would Do” . I debuted my brand new Vox AC30 amp that just showed up that afternoon. I wish we had video of the show. At one point towards the end of our set I said to the crowd. “I hope you're digging this cuz we don't usually sound this good!” And I heard Colette quietly respond “That's true.” In my opinion and memory this was the best performance this original Feral Housecats lineup ever gave.
Right around this time the songs “Pretty Little Belle” and “Murder In The Basement” were released online. And we even had some crowd members seemingly recognizing the songs. As usual….decent but not big crowd.