Mike Doughty Packs Haddon Lake Park in Fan-Friendly Outdoor Concert

In a performance marked by his distinctive syncopated guitar playing and playful stage banter, singer-songwriter Mike Doughty entertained a sizable all-ages crowd at Haddon Lake Park Wednesday night.

Chugging through a solid 90 minutes of material spanning his decade-plus solo career, the 42-year-old Brooklyn tunesmith took orders like a line cook in a busy kitchen, occasionally dabbing at his head with a handkerchief.

From the Web or the stage, Doughty has always indulged in fanservice, mostly because “I don’t know what it’s like to not be like that,” he told Patch.

His latest live album, The Question Jar Show, is predicated on that concept, upon which he's toured for years, whereby he responds to audience-submitted notes between songs.

Doughty got his start fronting '90s alternative act, Soul Coughing, whose biggest hit, "Circles," reached No. 8 on the Billboard Modern Rock Tracks in 1998. Decades after the fact, Doughty is still grateful for fans of his earlier work, but not enough to dig into that repertoire.

“It wasn’t the music I wanted to make,” he said.

Ever-amiable, Doughty yet expressed gratitude even when begging off a request.

“If you told me you were bringing a sign, I would have rehearsed it,” he called back to one fan whose homemade poster requested the song “Let the Moon Get Into It.”

Cellist Andrew “Scrap” Livingston backed his partner’s play throughout the evening, seasoning Doughty’s quips with a dry give-and-take that reflected their years of collaboration.

“I’ve been trying to eliminate C# from our lives, but it’s a very tenacious key,” Doughty apologized to Livingston as he tuned up his guitar at one point.

“It’s good,” Livingston comforted him. “It keeps you honest.”

Doughty’s charm revealed itself in small moments amid the confessional, beat-poetry lyrics of songs like “Bustin’ Up a Starbucks” and his beloved single “27 Jennifers,” both of which are still in regular rotation on WXPN-FM in Philadelphia.

“There’s a lot of Jennifers,” he offered when asked to account for its popularity.

“I got a Claire.”

Once, the duo caught themselves kidding with an audience member about how best to time a mescaline buzz to coincide with their set, and then quickly corrected course amid laughter from the crowd.

“Maybe the outdoor, free show in the park isn’t the place to talk about this,” Doughty turned to Livingston, “as young children toss beach balls at the foot of the stage.”

The children didn’t seem to mind, however. Neither did their parents, who clapped attentively after every number, snapped pictures throughout the show, and waited afterwards to shake hands with the singer-songwriter.

Doughty’s most recent releases include the album Yes and Also Yes and the memoir The Book of Drugs, which details unsparingly his recovery from addiction.

Roland Traynor, director of special events for Camden County, said that in the past 14 years, the Haddon Lake Park shows have become another facet of the popular free concert series for which the county parks system has become known.

“Our elected officials have really made a statement that they consider [the concert series] a quality-of-life issue,” Traynor said. “It is a constituent service that ranks right up there with the libraries and the county college, and the public tells us so.

“We’ve created a nice brand here with this,” he said.