By: David Rachac
 |
|
Mike Doughty - Photo from his website
|
Minneapolis has always been kind to Mike Doughty, from the initial rush of Soul Coughing and throughout his solo career, including an estimated 15,000 people at this summer’s Hennepin Avenue Block Party. So it was no surprise that a sold-out First Avenue welcomed him in support of his new CD Haughty Melodic and the first full-band tour since the demise of Soul Coughing.
What was a little surprising, though, was that the show had such a late start time. Doors were set to open at 8, but even at 9:15, the line to get into the club stretched for half a block. With two warm-up bands playing (Orenda Fink and Erin McKeown), it was almost 11 before the band took the stage, which seemed to take a little energy out of the crowd.
“We intend to rock you on a consistent basis. That’s the Mike Doughty Band guarantee” is what the man said, and rock us he did, starting the festivities off with “Busting Up A Starbucks” off the new album and “27 Jennifers” off of the 2003 Rockity Roll EP. The first Soul Coughing song they played (“True Dreams of Wichita”) got a nice round of applause, but for those in the crowd who came for the nostalgia of ten years ago, they would only get one more Soul Coughing song the rest of the night.
After promising that one of the ladies in the audience would get a “hot, steaming cup of Dan” (Dan Chen, the keyboardist) at the end of the night, they played three straight songs off the new album, including the poppy “Sunken-Eyed Girl.” They then launched into the self-described “show within the show” portion of the evening, where Doughty played three songs solo, including “Thank You Lord For Sending Me The F-Train,” from his first solo release Skittish.
Throughout the first half of the show, I was a little surprised how quiet the show was. Maybe it had to do more with me being way in the back by the bar, but the only quieter show I can remember was a Jonathan Richman show – and he was playing solo acoustic. The combination of the muted sound and the chattiness of people who seemingly came only to hear Soul Coughing songs (really, how can you spend $19 on a ticket and spend the whole night talking with your friends?) made for some periods where it was hard to stay full engaged with the show.
With the full band coming back, they did three more songs off the new album, including the single “Looking At The World From The Bottom Of A Well,” wrapped around a fairly faithful cover of Duran Duran’s “Hungry Like The Wolf”, which really seemed to get the crowd back into it. Several other covers soon followed, including bits of The Weather Girls’ “It’s Raining Men,” Guns And Roses’ “Paradise City” and a full treatment of Kenny Rogers’ “The Gambler”.
By the time they played a jazzy version of “St Louise Is Listening,” the only other Soul Coughing song of the night, the crowd had already started to thin out. But finishing the show with “Your Misfortune” and having the crowd sing the refrain of “Stand in the light, stand in the light, stand in the light” put a nice uplifting end to the show.
Set List
Busting Up a Starbucks
27 Jennifers
True Dreams of Wichita
Tremendous Brunettes
American Car
Sunken-Eyed Girl
Thank You Lord For Sending Me The F-Train
Grey Ghost
I Hear The Bells
Madeline And Nine
Unsingable Name
Hungry Like The Wolf
Looking At The World From The Bottom Of A Well
Firetruck>It’s Raining Men Medley
Ossining
Paradise City>The Gambler Medley
St Louise Is Listening
Your Misfortune
Location Info:
First Avenue
Artist Info: Mike Doughty
Share this story:
Article comments powered by Disqus