I’ve been spending time on both sides of the Ohio river this week. Today I’m in Cincinnati, staying across a the bridge in Covington, Kentucky. Covington itself is a strange bird. I can see across the multiple bridges into Cincinnati, but walking the streets last night in hopes of finding a decent restaurant around Madison Ave, I instead found a street consisting entirely of bridal stores and pawn shops. While I’m exaggerating ever so slightly, I did spot four of each on my six block walk.

While eating a pizza planning to hike it back to the hotel I noticed that Mike Doughty was playing The Southgate House, a short mile walk away in Newport. Having sorely missed his show at Turner Hall last month, and considering we gave his most recent Golden Delicious our Tuesday’s Gold treatment, it seemed like a pretty good way to spend a Tuesday night.

I can’t remember the exact year I last saw Mike Doughty live, though I know it was at the High Noon and that he covered Guns ‘N Roses. Prior to that I caught him multiple times opening for Galactic. Always a good time, many (including myself) wish he’d abandon his clear disdain for song requests from his Soul Coughing days and infuse them into his current live show. Instead, his performances these days draw primarily from the aforementioned Golden Delicious and its predecessor Haughty Melodic. No complaints from me as I’ve rocked both of them frequently, and, as the weather takes a turn for the warmer, his music is indeed the epitome of summertime. He did turn to the Soul Coughing tunes on a few occasions, live staples “Circles” and “St. Louise is Listening” were fanatically received, the latter remains one of his best penned tunes in my opinion.

According to audience reaction “27 Jennifers” was a clear favorite of the evening, surpassed only perhaps by “Busting Up A Starbucks” or “Looking At The World From The Bottom Of A Well.” He didn’t play “Sunken-Eyed Girl,” which would have been my one request, but there was no way it would have been heard (or played) above the loud and often screams of requests by passionate female audience members. The encore included his take on Kenny Rogers “The Gambler,” I’d forgotten he’d recorded that one and the audience sand along word for word.

Last night was fun, a good surprise considering my plans of watching the television in an all too same looking hotel room.

Photo: Lost Vegas
Myspace: Mike Doughty

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