Bostonist has seen Mike Doughty perform on several occasions. Heck, we've seen him order a round of drinks for the crowd, so we feel like we have a special bond with the guy (he's no KLo, but then again, who can be?). So we were intrigued last week to see Doughty promote his latest album, Golden Delicious, by kicking it old school - as the frontman of a band.
For those not wise in the way of Doughty, we'll give you a quick crash course: once upon a time (the 1990s), Mike Doughty was the frontman of a little band we liked to call Soul Coughing. The band was great, scored some minor hits ("Circles," anyone?), and had a nice little place in the alt-rock scene exploding at the time. Problem was that Soul Coughing wasn't to be long for the world: Doughty fell into addiction and left the band, which broke up shortly thereafter. After the musician cleaned up, he took a DIY approach to his music and worked his way back into the scene. The newly-released Golden Delicious serves as the follow-up to 2005's (brilliant) Haughty Melodic.
With his stop at the Somerville Theater on April 9, Doughty gave those of us who couldn't make it to a Soul Coughing show a taste of what the artist sounds like with a band backing him - and he demonstrated his place in the music scene as a phoenix that has successfully and confidently risen from the ashes.
Read the full review after the jump!
The Doughty demeanor is one both acerbic and charming: he'll listen to the shoutouts from his audience of diehard fans, but makes it clear that he's the one running the show. He'll take note of what fans want to hear, but he'll play what he wants to play.
After saying his hellos to Somerville, Cambridge, Boston, Allston, and Braintree (he knows his Boston geography), Doughty and his three-piece band dove into a set rich with Delicious selections and a smattering of Soul Coughing nods. The sassy yet sparse "27 Jennifers" delivered at the Lizard Lounge earlier this year has developed into a full-bodied rocker laced with a blues undertone, while the junior power ballad "Navigating the Stars at Night" possessed the hypnotic quality in live performance that Doughty didn't quite nail in the studio.
The surprise of the night, however, came in the form of Delicious's "More Bacon Than the Pan Can Handle." Doughty took looping (the art of lacing recorded sounds over each other) to a new level by cradling in his hand a loop machine filled with the spoken word clips that pepper the studio track. As the band played, Doughty DJed his way through the song, adding the clips where necessary. It looked a bit as if he was playing Simon in front of us, but it got the job done and proved that Doughty is once again in the innovator's seat.
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