Mike Doughty Loves Soft Serve

Mike Doughty and Aaron Arntz at Taste of Randolph St

This weekend I was in Chicago to see the in-laws and check out the Taste of Randolph Street, which featured a performance by Mike Doughty, formerly of Soul Coughing. Mike Doughty is awesome. My wife, Sally, interviewed him for a Pulse Magazine cover story a year or two ago and he seemed like a swell guy. We saved his voice mail message on the phone for about 6 months before we gave up the landline.

Though this weekend was a complete bust for any Illinois DQ for a interstate review, Doughty makes into the DQ blog because during his show he played the Soul Coughing tune, Soft Serve.  (Link to youtube video of a recent performance.  He screws up the words in this one but totally charms the audience with how he recovers).

Let me say a couple things about how awesome a Mike Doughty Show is.  1) So Funny: He performed just down the street from Oprah's Harpo Studios, and had the funniest rant about his failed love affair with Oprah and how she kept buying him cars to show her love, but that it was not what he wanted from her.  2) Consistently awesome songwriting.  He could have played a totally different 90 minute show and the gig would have been just as great. 3) New keyboard player, at least for this show--Aaron Arntz.  4)Fake Last Song, where instead of leaving the stage before an encore, the band turns their back on the crowd and stands there for a few minutes, acting surprised that the fans would want to hear more music.   Check out Mike's blog for his take on the Taste of Randolph event.