I really need to comment on last night. Tuesdy, my friend Ron IM’ed me late and asked if I was free on Wednesday. I wasn’t sure until he mentioned he had an extra ticket to see Mike Doughty at Maxwell’s. Doughty, in case you don’t know, was the lead singer of the ground-breaking alt-rock-jazz-fusion band Soul Coughing. We met up (unfortunately it sold out, so Lisa decided to head home), and got our first beers just in time to watch him fight his way onto stage. The show was amazing, the crowd was fun, and Mike is just a really cool guy.
His solo music is far less genre-bending than his work with SC because it’s just him and a guitar. But that doesn’t detract from it, as he performs with a quirky and sly sense of humor wrapped around a sincerely intimate conveyence. Doughty sounds like a cross between Dave Matthews (not really the band, more like his work with Tim Reynolds) and the Presidents of the United States of America. He talks with the audience and shares in-jokes with complete strangers. Everybody cheers for the song “Firetruck” written by a 4-year-old. It was sweet and fun and we all got along. After the show Ron and I bugged him for pictures. I took a shot of them together, and when he tried to take my picture he had a few problems. I ended up sitting there with my arm around Doughty for like 5 minutes while Ron tried to figure out what went wrong – and he was totally cool about it. Thankfully Ron finally got it working, and I should get copies of the pics from him soon.
I bought both solo CDs from Doughty last night and had a good time listening to them on my fretful ride home today (more on that later). So all of my faithful readers should go check him out, it’s well worth it.