On the surface, the pairing of veteran singer/songwriters Jill Sobule and John Doe seems, well, odd. Sobule’s little-girl voice and penchant for unusual topics or names for song titles like jetpacks, Mexican wrestlers and famous women in history (including Baby Doe and Mary Kay LeTourneau) would seem at odd with Doe’s deep baritone and of course, his history as the bassist and one of the principal vocalists and songwriters for X, one of the greatest American rock and roll bands of the last 30 years and also one of my favorite bands of all-time.
In reality, though, Sobule and Doe go back more than 15 years. In 1995, when X released their Unclogged and did an acoustic tour for it, Sobule was the opener. At the time, her “I Kissed a Girl” (not the much more recent Katy Perry hit) was all over MTV and alternative rock radio, so I didn’t expect anything as I figured that she was just a one-hit wonder and record label creation. Nothing was further from the truth. I thought that she was great that night and I’d go see her play several more times in the late ’90s and early ’00s when she played in the New York area on a regular basis. Her album Pink Pearl became of my favorites of 2000 as well. I eventually lost track of her, though as this performance showed, it was really good to reconnect and see what she’s been up to in the last decade or so.
For most of the show, Sobule and Doe were the only two people on stage, though towards the end of the set, they were joined by longtime friend Jim Boggia on a few numbers. The set consisted of them alternating between their respective catalogs, with Sobule contributing the aforementioned “Mexican Wrestler” and “Baby Doe” along with others ranging from the newer (“Nothing to Prove” from her 2009 disc California Years) to the old, a finale of yes “I Kissed a Girl” but played in the middle of parts of “Bitter”, a song from her 1997 album Happy Town that chronicled her disappointment that it was Jewel and not her that Atlantic (her label at the time) chose to promote. This time, though, the (somewhat mock) anger was directed at Katy Perry for “stealing my song title”. Though Doe was a bit overshadowed by Sobule’s exuberant and energetic presence, he contributed several heavy-hitters from the X catalog (“White Girl” and “The New World”) along with “Walking Out the Door” and “Never Enough”, both of which are on Live at the Pass (the recently released live-in-the-studio, fan-funded effort from Sobule and Doe).
Like on Live at the Pass, it was fun to hear Sobule reprising Exene Cervenka‘s role as she harmonized with Doe and they even performed one of Exene’s songs. Additionally, Doe’s “Golden State” benefited greatly from this and they even performed “Call of the Wreckin’ Ball” (by X side project The Knitters) with Boggia in tow. All in all, this was a fantastic show!
