Michael formed his first solo band, The Michael Harris Project, in 1997 in Dallas, TX, as a live outlet for the 2 instrumental solo albums he had released to that point, “Defense Mechanizms” and “Ego Decimation Profile”. The band’s first show was with Joe Satriani and Steve Vai at the Bronco Bowl Dallas. “MHP” toured fairly regularly for several years proceeding that, then in 2000, made some changes in the band and took on the new moniker, The Michael Harris Tranz-Fusion, which has officially been Michael’s live band since 2001.
Since that time, Michael has formed several incarnations of MHT, with a live set featuring instrumentals from his now 9 solo albums, along with some of Michael’s vocal compositions and the band’s versions of several choice cover tunes. MHT has played shows with Black Label Society, Yngwie Malmsteen, among others, and is still active and better than ever in 2024.