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Taking the stage with casual aloofness, the former Soul Coughing frontman and his nattily attired bandmates opened the evening with “I Just Want the Girl in the Blue Dress to Keep on Dancing,” a raucous homage to the beloved, rail-hugging female concert-going archetype of every musician’s dreams.

From there, the four-piece faithfully paced through a sizable set from Doughty’s solo repertoire, including a few pre-Delicious offerings like “Busting Up A Starbucks” but centering primarily on the current release. Cuts like “Navigating by the Stars at Night” had the breathing room to expand beyond the borders of their tightly defined studio versions, lending a certain jam-inclined airiness to the evening.

Meanwhile, the looped-samples-meet-driving-drum feel of “More Bacon Than the Pan Can Handle” came off as remarkably fresh and spontaneous. The acerbic contrast of “Fort Hood” made for one of the evening’s more interesting moments, a song Doughty wrote that deals with the Iraq war from the poignant perspective of lost innocence and rings with the repeated chorus from Hair’s “Let the Sunshine In.” (More about that song here.)

The lone Soul Coughing offering Doughty put forth ended up being a loosely delivered version of “Circles.” Oddly enough for the 700 or so souls at the Beaumont last night, it was a gesture that was appreciated but didn’t elicit the sort of clamoring response that you’d expect, a sure sign that Doughty has created more than a comfortable niche for himself outside the identity of his former work.