John Oates has visited the Musical Instrument Museum enough times that it now feels less like a tour stop and more like familiar ground.
When he returns for two 7 p.m. shows on Wednesday, Sept. 29, and Thursday, Sept. 30, he will carry that same easy comfort. The sold-out shows are part of his “John Oates: An Evening of Songs and Stories” jaunt.
“I love doing my acoustic show there because it’s so well-suited for a ‘storytellers’ show,” Oates said. “That’s what I’m doing. I’m bringing a percussionist and a keyboard player with me.”
Oates features songs that he’s “personally involved with or have a certain importance to me,” he said. “I like to call them the songs that made me.”
His upcoming show continues the intimate, stripped-down format he’s come to love with a percussionist and a keyboardist.
Among those are reinterpreted Hall & Oates favorites.
“The show is really about my musical history,” he said. “I do a lot of songs that made me. I’ll play songs that were influential to me as a kid — what affected my guitar style, my singing style, my songwriting style.
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Audiences, then, understand who he is as a musician.
“That way, when I do play the more familiar songs, you know — i.e., the hits — they can see the connection between where I came from, what I was listening to, what moved me, what inspired me, and then how that became,” he said.
Oates’ relationship with music goes back almost as far as his memory. His first concert — Bill Haley and the Comets at an amusement park near Philadelphia — hit him like a lightning bolt. He was only 4 or 5, hearing live music for the first time.
“It was in an outdoor pavilion in an amusement park,” he said. “I remember the rollercoaster noise in the background, and all that stuff.
“I remember running down to the front of the stage, which was probably only 2 feet high. It was a concrete pavilion. I was staring at them. I didn’t know what it was. I didn’t know what I was watching, but it was really exciting and really cool.”
His family has a recording of him singing an Elvis song at age 5. He picked up a guitar at 6 and knew that was for him.
“I never looked back,” he said. “I’ve never considered anything else in my life. I’ve never considered doing anything else as a job. I’ve been fortunate enough to make a living doing this ever since. I’ve been in junior high school. I never questioned it. I just did it.”
That sense of wonder still fuels him. It’s part of why his solo work resonates with fans who’ve followed him beyond the Hall & Oates era.
“My music is honest,” he said. “It’s straightforward. It’s a mirror as who I am. The Hall & Oates music has been great. It’s given me a platform to do whatever I wanted. My music is really personal, and it’s unique to me.
“People like me and they can feel my personality through the music.”
And yes — he’s still surprising people. When the Apple News feed carried a story about Icehouse’s 1987 hit “Electric Blue,” many fans learned that Oates co‑wrote it.
“You’re not the only one that has no idea,” he said. He’s even added it to his full-band set.”
But at the MIM, the focus stays on the stories behind the songs.
“A great song can be performed in a lot of ways,” he said. “When you see us, when you do a show like this, it eliminates all the artifice, production and technical bells and whistles. It all about stripping it down to its most essential thing, which is the song itself. It’s on display in this kind of context. That’s what I love about doing a show like this.”
