Mrs. Dude's at-work playlist 3/27 and 28

March 27:
Modest Mouse: The Moon and Antarctica

March 28:
Mike Doughty: Golden Delicious
Regina Spektor: Begin to hope

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.

Mrs. Dude's at-work playlist--3/26

Mike Doughty: Haughty Melodic (I didn't make it all the way through the album yesterday, so it was what popped up when I turned on my iPod)

Glen Phillips: Mr. Lemons

Kay Hanley: Cherry Marmalade

Just 'cause

"Slain by the words I lack/My world is bursting sappy music"
--Madeline and Nine by Mike Doughty

Mrs. Dude's at-work playlist--3/25

Counting Crows: Saturday Nights and Sunday Mornings
Dixie Chicks: Taking the Long Way
Mike Doughty: Haughty Melodic

Saturday Nights and Sunday Mornings by Counting Crows

There's a song by the band Fall Out Boy called "Champagne for my real friends, real pain for my sham friends" that includes the couplet:

"Strike us like matches, cause everyone deserves the flames
We only do it for the scars and stories, not the fame"

In the end, Saturday Nights and Sunday Mornings seems to be about Adam Duritz's attempt to find himself and his "real friends" amid the "sham friends" that come with his Rock and Roll lifestyle.

Saturday Nights and Sunday Mornings is a two-disc concept album. One disc, Saturday Nights, is full of plugged in rock, crunch guitars, and sin soaked melodies. Sunday Mornings, on the other hand, is an introspective-feeling album full of the regrets that come with a hangover and the realization that you've woken up alone.

One is supposed to listen to both albums back-to-back, I've read, to feel the full effect of the album.

I bought my copy on iTunes, so the transition from Saturday Night to Sunday Morning seemed all the starker. My mind was still trying to recover from the amped up, driving melody of "Cowboys" when the haunting song "Washington Square" demanded my full attention.

Most of my favorite songs came from the Saturday Nights portion of the album. "Sundays" was dance-able with a big hook. "Cowboys" reeked of a desperation and need that I haven't seen from Counting Crows since...well, ever.

The lone standout on the Sunday Mornings album, for me, was "When I dream of Michaelangelo." It starts with the line "I don't like you, but you wanna be my friend" and doesn't stop until the last chord. Duritz and co. evoke images brought forth in Recovering the Satellites' song "Angels of the Silence" with the line "I dream of Michaelangelo when I'm lying in my bed." It's copied word-for-word from the earlier track. It's an interesting play on their part and, strangely, it works.

Overall, it was an ambitious album. If I could take Saturday Night and leave Sunday Morning, I would. The band seems to be at it's best when it's rocking, and the stripped down tracks just don't work for me.

Mrs. Dude's at-work playlist--3/24/08

Tegan and Sara: The con
Tegan and Sara: So jealous
R.E.M.: Life's rich pageant
Our Lady Peace: Happiness is not a fish that you can catch