The largely acoustic Sad Man Happy Man is a deliberate return to everything people love about Mike Doughty, so if you haven't dipped into his solo catalog, it's time to find out what his dedicated fanbase has known all along. Doughty makes albums that simmer with verbal wit, and Sad Man Happy Man is no exception with its songs about everything from relationship bust-ups (Doughty was going through one while he was recording it) to his astute observations about the American economy.

Last year he launched the Question Jar show in which Doughty and Andrew "Scrap" Livingston field crowd queries and song requests (written on paper and put in a jar) from audience members between songs, answering everything from "Do chicks still dig robots?" (Answer: "I think it's pirates now") to what he considers his favorite word ("inscrutable").

The intimate, anything-goes format is a good fit for Doughty, allowing him to "show off his various facets with equal vigor — his confidence and his vulnerability, his rage and his remorse, his romanticism and his cynicism, his apathy and his bleeding heart, his seriousness and his humor," as one reviewer put it, adding: "It's all in there, the well-rounded human condition finding voice through an expressive artist. This is a man one might actually get to know through his music."

Artist's website

Friday, November 27th, 2009 | Doors 6:00pm | Showtime 7:30pm | Downstairs Live

Tickets:
Floor/Loge (Reserved Seating): $30.00 ($25 ticket + $5 processing fee)
Mezzanine (Reserved Seating): $40.00 ($25 + $15 premium service*/processing fee)


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