Hal McGee and Chris Phinney visit Columbus, Ohio – Frequency Friday, June 6, 2025

On July 22, 2023, Columbus, Ohio’s Fuse Factory art and technology initiative sponsored Hal McGee (Gainesville, Florida) and Chris Phinney (Ripley, Tennessee) to visit Columbus, Ohio and perform at Jeff Chenault’s full day Cassette Culture Celebration. And once again the Fuse Factory brought Hal and Chris back to Columbus to perform at their June 6, 2025 Frequency Friday, an event held on the first Friday of each month (during season).
 
Hal and Chris are old friends who I first got acquainted with writing about their music in my Aural Innovations space rock zine. So, I was as eagerly looking forward to quality hanging out time as I was their performances.
 
They flew into Columbus late Thursday afternoon and were picked up at the airport by Jeff. I met the trio at Jeff’s house where Hal and Chris were lodging and we had a nice visit and taco dinner provided by Jeff and his charming wife Deb.

Jeff, Chris and Hal in front of Jeff's house after arriving in Columbus

Extreme morning people that we are (mostly Hal and I), I picked up the trio at 6am Friday morning and winged them off to Stauf’s coffeehouse, which Hal had fallen in love with on his 2023 visit. After a relaxing visit I took them back to Jeff’s house where the trio prepared for the evening’s performance. We then regrouped for lunch at Mazah Mediterranean restaurant where we met up with veteran artists John and Cathy Bennett.

Clockwise from left: Jerry, Cathy and John Bennett, Hal, Chris (Jeff is taking the photo)

Frequency Friday’s are held in the historic Old First Presbyterian Church on Columbus’ east side. These are always special events, typically with four varied performers. First up was Michael Hancock from Cincinnati, Ohio. Michael had an impressive setup and throughout his performance a flaming video persisted behind him. I really enjoyed his playful symphony of bleeps, blurps and industrial elements.

Michael Hancock at Frequency Friday

​Following Michael was Allan Pichardo from Portland, Oregon, who performs as My Love Mhz. Allan plays rhythm driven electronica that’s like a blend of trance/chill-out grooves, ambient space exploration and sampled hip-hop. Cool stuff.

My Love Mhz at Frequency Friday

Hal was up next, performing two spoken word pieces while accompanying himself on electronics. The first was a passionate anti-AI discourse, something that would be familiar to Hal fans. He then did a humorous ‘dead celebrities’ narrative.

Hal McGee at Frequency Friday

​Wrapping up the evening was Jeff and Chris performing as Skull Vacuum. This was a killer set of experimental space electronica. Great soundtrack music that floated along in space but got pretty intense at times. As a bonus, Hal joined them as guest on one ‘song’.

Jeff and Chris perform as Skull Vacuum at Frequency Friday, joined by Hal as guest

As a bonus, Hal’s old friend from his Indianapolis days Brian Callahan and his son Ben drove over from Indie for the show. It was a great night of performances but there was more to come.

Jeff with Ben and Brian Callahan

​Saturday morning Jeff, Chris and Hal picked me up and we went to Kafe Kerouac in the Ohio State University north campus neighborhood. I’d never been here before (Hal had scoped it out) and it’s a very cool place. It’s a coffee shop with some food and beer, separate room with a stage for poetry readings, plus used books and records. I got some fun vintage sci-books cheap.

Chris looks menacing as Jerry peruses the books and Jeff browses the vinyl

​Next we drove downtown for the annual Columbus Arts Festival. Food was foremost on our minds so we strolled across the Scioto River bridge and got Bahama Mamas and German potato salad from Schmidt’s food truck. Schmidt’s is a legendary German restaurant in Columbus.

Hal, Jeff and Chris munching at the Columbus Arts Festival. BEST picture of the weekend!!

​It was hot and crowded so we decided to bail on the festival. Jeff parked by Used Kids Records and he and Hal went in. Chris and I went across the street to the Casa Cacao coffee shop where we relaxed and were soon joined by Jeff and Hal.

Chris, Jerry and Hal at Casa Cacao

Finally, Jeff drove me home and he, Hal and Chris came in for a bit and met my wife Deb. Hal was falling asleep so we all decided it would be best for the guys to relax the rest of the day because they were scheduled to fly out EARLY Sunday morning (friendship is never having to hide the fact that you’re tired and have had enough!).
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It’s always a treat getting to spend quality time with out of town friends. It was great getting to see Chris, Hal and Jeff perform but just hanging out is the best part. BIGGEST of thanks to Jeff and Alison Colman of the Fuse Factory for bringing Chris and Hal to Columbus!