There are few shows these days that I'll make the trek through techno-suburbia to attend, but I will always make my way to Boulder to catch Mike Doughty, with or without the promise of a full band… Tonight we had no snow, but nice cool springtime weather. A nice change from a couple weeks ago.

Opening the show was Indiana band The Panderers, a band discovered by Mike Doughty and signed to his brand new imprint, Snack Bar Records. The Panderers were pretty much a perfect opening band for Doughty, a very likeable three piece… likeable as in funny and talkative, as well as very good musically. The singer/frontman played a gritty blues-laced style, while the bass player slapped away at doghouse bass and the drummer pounded away at a simplified rockabilly kit - kick, snare, and hi-hat only… no frills. It was a very simple set-up that created a very lo-fi, clean sound perfectly, including the thick, tuned-down snare that was very woody, but nice in the mix. The singer sounded like dude from Cake, and occasionally the songs took on a bit of a Soul Coughing hint, as the singer rapped a bunch of words around the simply strummed chords that turned into great by-the-book bluesy roadhouse solos. The drummer was excellent, doing more with two drums than many drummers do with a full 5-piece kit, adding more to the show than simply time-keeping. Fans of Doughty, Cake, and even G. Love should take note of The Panderers… their loose-tight grooves with a Midwestern heart are very likeable and stick with you for days.

After all these years, it is really nice to see Doughty play with a full rock band… over time I've seen him alternately solo, with a keyboard player, and with a keyboard player and drummer … but when you add that fourth man, the rock and roll magic really starts to happen. Doughty plays the penultimate frontman when he's fronting the basic rock unit, and does it with a panache that few could match. The band started the night off with "I Just Want The Girl In The Blue Dress To Keep On Dancing" - a perfect way to begin the set, it got the audience immediately up and moving. A very loose version of "I Wrote A Song About Your Car" featured some incredibly funky drumming and noisy breakdowns, pure rock and roll style. Mike Doughty is very comfortable with this full band thing, and he's loose and relaxed, having a great time. The keyboards tend to be a bit more subdued when there is a full band playing with them, not the rhythmic master playing that happens on the smaller tours, but when the band breaks into "Soft Serve" they come out front and lead the band in a laid-back 70's soul groove that was stupendous.

For "Grey Ghost", Doughty puts down his electric guitar and turns to the acoustic, while drummer extraordinaire Pete McNeil puts the sticks down and plays the song with his bare hands, ala dude from Guster. It makes for a nice mellow feeling on the song, really recalling the album version a bit more than normally happens live. Doughty made the comment, "2008 is a great year. I've been out of Soul Coughing longer than I was in Soul Coughing." But then goes on to play his most Soul Coughing-esque track since the band disbanded, "More Bacon Than The Pan Can Handle", which was awesome, with a long lead-in featuring Doughty on the sampler building the rhythm with various loops and phrases.

The set was very nice and very solid. More sound makes for a better live show in rock music, and this was a prime example of the phenomenon. With Mike Doughty, the energy has always been high, even when it was just him playing guitar, but with a full band behind him the songs soar. I can even deal with the new take on "27 Jennifers" when it's played live with all that noise coming from stage. The set closed with "Looking At The World From The Bottom Of A Well" much to the happiness of the crowd. It was a great way to end the show, for sure, and made everyone leave happy, feeling like they'd heard just about everything they'd come wanting to hear. The show simply rocked. There were moments of sonic mayhem, loud and energetic, exactly as rock should be live, which made for the most memorable Doughty show in years. But within all that chaos and rock there was obviously a tight control, everything in its exact place, professional showmanship and musicianship at its finest, making the songs sound like they are the easiest things in the world to play. Amazing.

All told Doughty and band played 16 songs that night. They were all memorable and great. But even better than the music was Doughty. He seems to have had a return to his post-Soul Coughing moods, as he advocated for concert-goers rights by snatching a cell phone from an attendee who was in the front row talking during a song and telling the caller that dude was at a concert and would have to call them back. And Doughty's return to mocking the encore was a welcome surprise. The fact that he explained to the crowd how they would pretend this was their last song and then turn around for a minute and then turn around and play a couple more songs was priceless, reminding me of one of the foundational reasons I fell in love with Doughty's live shows in the first place. The man rocks, pure and simple, and with a full band behind him becomes an unstoppable force.

I do miss Handsome Dan, though.

-David DeVoe

Mike Doughty with The Panderers
www.mikedoughty.com
April 23, 2008
Fox Theater, Boulder, Colorado

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