Mike Doughty at The Gargoyle--3/27 **revised**

I was reading the paper yesterday evening and saw that Mike Doughty was going to be playing later that evening at The Gargoyle later that evening. The show was a reasonable $15 and I was desperate to see Doughty in concert. So, in a very un-Mrs. Dudelike turn of events, I decided to go.

I'm glad I did.

The Gargoyle was an awesome, though poorly ventilated, venue. It was small enough to be intimate but big enough to give everyone room to push toward the stage. But, after dancing for an hour, my legs hurt from the tile floor.

Doughty seemed genuinely into the crowd, putting out an awesome vibe. He could've copped an attitude since The Gargoyle is a student-run venue on a University campus and there were maybe 200 people there. Instead, he seemed genuinely interested in putting on a killer show. He had an ease on stage and mastered the art of between-song banter. For me, this was the best part of the show and Doughty interacted with an energy and interest like I've never seen before. A close second might be Steve Poltz.

Doughty played songs from all of his solo albums, hitting his Haughty Melodic stuff pretty hard. But he also played songs from his Soul Coughing days. Highlights for me were the songs:

Soft serve
Busting up a Starbucks
I hear the bells
Ft. Hood
I wrote a song about your car
Tremendous brunettes

and a rousing version of Firetruck at the audience's insistence.

I was amused at how many people weren't singing along until he got to "I hear the bells," at which point they broke into song. I attributed this to the fact that a large portion of the audience was college-aged (which makes sense, as The Gargoyle is a student-run club and the show was free for Washington University students) and probably knew the song from it's appearance in a pivotal scene in the television show Veronica Mars. The age of the audience also led to me overhearing a college-aged girl say "I can't believe there are so many people here who are my parents' age."

Man...I felt old.

Opening for Doughty was funky fresh rock band The Panderers. A band on Doughty's label, Snack Bar, the Panderers were a mix of alt-country and neo-soul and reminded me a lot of Better Than Ezra, Steve Poltz, and Doughty himself. Catchy and fun, the music was fabulous and the drummer, bass player, and keyboardist returned to the stage to back Doughty. They only have an EPs-worth of material, so their set was short but each song was carefully crafted and performed with energy.

We were provided with a bizarre treat before The Panderers came on. The drummer, bass player, and keyboardist for both The Panderers and Mike Doughty's backing band came out dressed in funny hats and fake facial hair. They played wordless prog-ish music, including a song where the bassist read from a Euclidean Geometry book. The audience wasn't sure if the performance was a joke or for real, but the music was good, so I wasn't sure it mattered.

Overall, the evening was well worth the money I paid.

P.S.--Go read Alex's review of the show. He was nice enough to show me some link love so I want to return the favor. Also? He had a lot of the same views on the evening that I did.