There are certain musicians that have such unique, stirring voices, sometimes I want to press my fingers to their necks and feel the vibrations. Mike Doughty has one of those voices. He has a natural reverberation that makes every syllable sound like it traveled up through a canyon in his throat. That’s why Soul Coughing was such a success and, undoubtedly, a big reason for the packed-in crowd at Mount Lookout club The Redmoor Sunday night.
Billed as a "concert/reading/Q&A tour," when Doughty wasn’t bringing the room to near silence during his songs, he was happy to keep the crowd laughing. He read portions of his memoir, The Book of Drugs, sharing stories about his bandmates, tour life and run-ins with a clown and some Mexicans in California. He answered “gnarly questions” about Soul Coughing (his former band), shamed a drunk guy and heckled hecklers.
Doughty rose to fame in the late ‘90s with Soul Coughing. By the 2000s, the band had broken up. After battles with his former band members, drugs and alcohol, Doughty set out on his own. The Book of Drugs tells of those battles, while his latest album, Yes and Also Yes, takes Doughty on a path to further distance himself from those former demons. He no longer performs Soul Coughing material, but Doughty's entertaining presentation didn't need those old songs. He performed with only his guitar and one-of-a-kind voice to a room full of perfectly content fans.
Following every one of the dozen or so songs he performed, Doughty expressed his gratitude with a “Thank you very much.” He accepted shouted comments graciously, but shied away from what appeared to be the beginning of a long-winded comment by assuring everyone that the show wasn’t about him. It was about the crowd and entertaining them.
Doughty had no hearts to win over with his humor, sincerity or flawless show -— this adoring crowd already belonged to him. But he put his heart into his answers and his music, anyway. Mike Doughty treated his fans like his friends, which is the kindest way to treat a human.
On behalf of everyone there: Thank you, very much, Mike Doughty.
