We drove up to Frankfurt last night to see Mike Doughty. Doughty was the front-man for the band Soul Coughing in the 1990s. They were very popular (at least with the people I ran with). Do you remember the song, “Circles”? That was a Soul Coughing/Doughty tune.
He had a lot of problems with the group – he also had personal addiction problems. He quit the band, got clean and started a solo career in 2000. He’s been making outstanding music ever since.
Doughty’s a talented wordsmith, poet, and musician. He’s a true artist in my opinion. He played in a place called Nachtleben (Nightlife) in Frankfurt. Tickets were 12 Euros. The place was about 60 square meters and when Doughty started playing, there were about 15 people, six of those were us. His buddy and fellow virtuoso, Scrap Livingston accompanied him on Cello – beautiful stuff.
He speaks this fast, broken German (he’s obsessed with the German language). It was funny to watch the Germans in the audience as he said things like, “You look sexy and healthy,” auf Deutsch. Good stuff. It’s easy to trip up a German with American idioms and random sarcasm, they don’t get it.
We got to meet him after the show. He seems like a nice guy, down to earth. He could have sold out for big money and a few “pop” songs, but choose to stay independent and play for the real people. That says a lot to me.
I sent him the photos, maybe he’ll use some on his blog, I hope so. We hope his "German obsession" doesn’t go away any time soon, and that he comes back to play. If you get a chance to see him, do it, you won’t regret it – like I said, he’s a talented dude.
Mike Doughty in Frankfurt, Germany
Mike Doughty in Frankfurt, Germany
Mike Doughty in Frankfurt, Germany
Mike Doughty in Frankfurt, Germany