Mike Doughty Live in Vancouver at St James Hall
Former Soul Coughing Frontman Brings the Question Jar Back to BC
May 17, 2009
It's 20 minutes past Mike Doughty's set time and the Brooklyn-based singer has arrived late. He puts his guitar down and holds up a clear jar. "This is the Question Jar," he says. "Write down your questions and put them into this jar. We will answer them in between songs. No question is too strange.” Audience members amble up and feed the jar.
“Did that beard magically appear when you crossed the border?”
“What is the silliest thing you own?”
“Which German cheese would win in a fight: Gouda or Emmenthal?”
“Is it better to be the statue or the pigeon?” And on.
Five minutes later, Doughty and his comrade cellist/guitarist Andrew “Scrap” Livingston are fully set up and playing. Just two guys, playing songs, answering questions. It’s unfussy. And inclusive. And truthful. Everything his former altbeatjazzrock band, Soul Coughing wasn’t. And it works – so well, in fact, this is the Jar’s second tour, Doughty’s umpteenth.
His Truth is Marching On
Would other musicians apologize and explain about the delay arriving in Vancouver because they were waiting in the US for a doctor to phone in a prescription for the “crazy pills” he needs “because if I don’t take them, I go crazy”? (Doughty is bi-polar.) Or joke about how he “loooooved me my drugs. They were my best friends until they tried to kill me” while discussing his 9th year of sobriety on stage?
What is this strange thing called honesty in the land of rock? Isn’t rock (even Doughty’s small or medium-sized version) supposed to be about frontin’ and pushin' your own hype?
On Not Being Famous
Years after he left Soul Coughing, toured the US with just car and guitar and put out a number of solo albums and EPs (including his latest “big-band” Golden Delicious disc) Doughty said in an interview that he made a choice not to be famous. He explained that some “famous” people choose to be famous, that they cultivate and perpetuate their own mystique and mythology. This approach seemed pointless to him. Now, this would have been an easy claim to make if he’d been toiling away in obscurity.
But Doughty’s popular in America. His songs are used in TV shows, Dave Matthews is a huge fan (and his ATO Records label boss), and his relentless touring, striking songwriting, and direct approach has won him legions of fans.
Today @MikeDoughtyYeah writes and responds regularly on Twitter. He maintains a highly personal, insanely well-written and witty blog. Emails go straight to his own inbox. He posts photos people have taken of him. He sells his own CDs after the show. He frets when he has to scold or throw drunkards out for talking too loudly during his stripped-down performances. He makes himself as available as possible to the people who dig his music. He is, in fact, a nice guy.
The Poetry of Doughty
To the music. Tonight in Vancouver, he asks Scrap if it’s okay to start with a “solo” song, and launches into “Thank You Lord, For Sending Me The F Train”, then “I Just Want the Girl in the Blue Dress to Keep on Dancing” and “Bustin’ up a Starbux”. He plays a request of “Down on the River By the Sugar Plant”, a heart-achingly dusky and romantic song.
In fact, a lot of Doughty’s songs not only have wordy titles, but are about the complex tapestry of relationships. And with the bells and whistles of Soul Coughing long gone, Doughty’s poetry is unfettered and free to stand up and be counted.
He plays a new track, “Nectarine Part 2”, a countrified follow-up to Golden Delicious’ Part 1. “Navigating by the Stars at Night” – a song clearly about being on the road and “medicatin’ in the mini-van” – sounds stunning tonight. A few Soul Coughing songs are allowed – "Circles" is a sing-song, and "St Louise is Listening", a track inspired by the silent film star Louise Brooks, is its usual hypnotic self.
For the next two hours, Doughty plays much from his entire discography: stuff from Golden, Rockity Roll (“Ossinging” rollicks), and all but two tracks from 2005’s Haughty Melodic (an anagram of Michael Doughty) get an airing. “White Lexus” and encore “Looking at the World from the Bottom of a Well” sound particularly lush.
“The Only Answer” from his debut solo CD-R Skittish, is tonight’s fab “fake last song” , ie the song he’ll play before the last song, Soul Coughing’s “Janine”, after which Scrap and Doughty will turn around in their chairs to pretend they left the stage, before rotating ‘round and playing two more tracks.
The Only Answers
And in between all this, the As to all the Qs. Which, incidentally, are as follows:
- “Yes, I was clean shaven this morning in Bellingham, Washington.”
- “A giant head of a Cyclops on a stick. It’s kind of a paper-machier thing but it’s 2D”
- “Emmenthal. Psssshhhh, hands down."
- “It’s better to be the poop, more neutral.”
After the show, a tiredish Doughty sits on stage and meets his fans. He’s selling a CD he put out called Busking. It’s 12 tracks he recorded in the tunnel between the 3 train and the F train at 14th Street in New York. The disc-back says he made “two dollar bills, four quarters and a dime”. Tonight, he says, the proceeds of his Busking sales will go into the gas tank of their rental car.
Then, when the crowd is gone, he turns to this reporter and says, “I hope you’ll say nice things about me... I’m a nice guy”.
At least he's honest. And it's hard to argue.
Mike Doughty live at St James Hall in Vancouver was presented by the fine folks at Timbre Productions Concerts.
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