Mike Doughty - The Question Jar Show

  by John Clarkson

published: 25 / 7 / 2012

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One keeps expecting Mike Doughty to slip up on ‘The Question Jar Show’, but he never does so. The premise of this new live double CD, which was recorded at a gig in Doughty’s native New York City, is an intriguing, but simple one. Doughty, in what was potentially a dangerous move, invited questions from his audience by asking them to write them down on pieces of paper before the gig and to place them in a large jar at the front of the stage. The former Soul Coughing front man then in between songs picked questions out at random and tried to answer them. The show, which was largely recorded on Halloween Night 2009 at the time of his third solo studio album ‘Sad Man Happy Man’, was part of an entire tour he played involving the question jar. The questions range from the surreal (“Have you ever considered life as a ghostbuster?”) and the ridiculous (“Would you rather play Twister with Dick Cheney or punch a kitten in the face”), to the challenging (“There are no songs called ‘Bridget’...Can you write one?”) to the lewd (“Which woman in the first three rows would you like most to have sex with, even if she is a Republican?”) The gravel-voiced Doughty responds to them all, occasionally deflecting away from some of them, but more often than not though replying to them with a belligerent humour and charm. Sometimes the results are funny; at other times less so, but it is never dull. He handles his boisterous audience well. “Will you marry me?” shrieks out an audience member. “If you put it in the jar, you will find put,” Doughty replies. The only other musician on stage with him is Andrew ‘Scrap’ Livingstone, whose rumbling cello accompanies Doughty on acoustic guitar and vocals on and off through twenty numbers, including the quirky ‘I Wrote a Song About Your Car’, the bleakly tender ‘Navigating By the Stars at Night’ and the surprisingly funky ‘Put It Down’. Occasionally the music takes second place to the comedy, but ‘The Question Jar Show’ is nevertheless a fine record in which Mike Doughty has taken the concept of the live record and spikily done something different with it.

Track Listing:-

1 Looking At The World From The Bottom Of A Well
2 Busting Up Starbucks
3 (Octopi / Tangelo / Killing)
4 (I Keep On) Rising Up
5 Ossining
6 (Virgins / Bridget / Twister)
7 (You Should Be) Doubly (Gratified)
8 I Wrote A Song About Your Car
9 Like A Luminous Girl
10 (Stripper / Naked / Real Love)
11 Shunned + Falsified
12 Rising Sign
13 (He's Got The) Whole World (In His Hands)
14 Madeline And Nine
15 (Fresh / Famous / Zombie)
16 Nectarine (Part Two)
17 Navigating By The Stars At Night
18 Down On The River By The Sugar Plant
19 I Hear The Bells
20 Keeping Watch Over Some Cow
21 (Tattos / King Diamond / Repertoir)
22 Grey Ghost
23 Tremendous Brunettes
24 (I Want To) Burn You (Down)
25 27 Jennifers
26 (Tomb / Girlfriend / Break The Rules)
27 Put It Down / Pleasure On Credit
28 Your Misfortune

Band Links:-

https://www.facebook.com/mikedoughty
https://twitter.com/Mike_Doughty_
http://www.songkick.com/artists/367320-mike-doughty
https://www.youtube.com/user/MikeDoughtyVEVO
http://www.mikedoughty.com/

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