Concert Review: Mike Doughty

I Figure I'll start this bad boy off with a concert review (there will be many of them on this site).

As is usually the case with me, because I am a huge music geek, my excitement level was high heading into Mike Doughty's show.

Having been a fan of Mike's work, both solo and with Soul Coughing, I was chomping at the bit to get into the show.

The evening started with an "opening band" that was nameless and at first glance pointless. Taking the stage in hunter's caps and fake beards, they basically played disjointed sections of music and unintelligibly howled over the top of it all. As they continued some members of the gathered masses actually began to cheer this group on, which confused me even further.

That is until I realized that the "lead man" of the band, who kept his back turned the entire time, shared body characteristics with Mike Doughty himself. It was then I realized it was all a big work, a big goof that I was now the butt of… brilliant.

Next came The Panderers, a three piece from Indiana that are new signees to Doughty's label (Snack Bar). They were fantastic and had the Wonder Ballroom in the palm of their hands.

Finally the time came for the man of the hour, taking the stage with a crack band that shares Panderers members Pete McNeal (drums) and "Scrap" Livingston (Bass), as well as John Kirby (Electric Piano).

It is always fun to see and act with such a devoted fan base like Doughty's, because there is very much a family atmosphere at the show.

Mike and the band obviously love to play and let it show, peppering the set with songs from all of his solo work. Crowd pleasers included fantastic takes on "Tremendous Brunettes" and "I Hear the Bells" from 2005's Haughty Melodic. After deflecting numerous Soul Coughing cover requests, Doughty did placate the loving room with "Circles".

Tracks of the new, and beautiful, Golden Delicious were on display as well, including "Fort Hood" (which lifts directly from "Let the Sun Shine in" from the musical Hair and brought with it a rousing sing-along) and the sample-ridden, Soul Coughing-esque "More Bacon Than The Pan Can Handle".

As the opening "opening band" dictated, the night was tongue in cheek throughout. Right up to the point where Doughty and Band announced the "Fake Last Song", a cover of Kenny Rogers' "The Gambler" before turning their backs to the audience for a minute rather than taking a traditional encore break.

The "encore" consisted of favorites "27 Jennifers" and "Looking at the World from the Bottom of a Well", wrapping up another excuse to call Doughty a great showman as well as storyteller.