gotta love the doughty.
My man crush on Mike Doughty began back in his Soul Coughing days. In high school, I used to drive Jeff Richardson and his brother to school and we had to have our daily dose of Doughty. We knew every lyric, every beat, every hiccup and scratch on every Soul Coughing CD we had. All three of them.
Back in "those days", Soul Coughing never seemed to tour much. At least not in New England. I remember one of the first WBCN River Raves. Soul Coughing was to be the first opening act - onstage at 1:30p. We plopped into our seats at 1:25p. They'd gone on early and we missed them. I paid I don't know how much for a River Rave ticket - a Lollapalooza-esque show with a lineup of several dozen bands and I couldn't have cared less about any of them. Except the Coughing. And we missed them.
In the aftermath of Soul Coughing disbanding, I scoured the earth high and low for an appropriate musical replacement. Actually not. I just stopped listening to music for the most part. A few years later, I believe I'd seen a band poster or something online for Doughty coming to the Paradise in Boston and he was playing solo. In the years that followed, my girlfriend and I happily patronized half a dozen shows or so in the Providence/Boston area. All the while watching Mike Doughty go from a one-man show to a multi-man show. To a full ensemble with a spiffy record deal. He recently toured with Barenaked Ladies. I guess its safe to assume that Doughty's back and not going anywhere for a while.