PITTSBURGH -- "Take off your shirt," yelled a woman in the crowd.
"Take off YOUR shirt," David Duchovny responded with impeccable timing.
It was one of those nights Sunday, at a sold-out Altar Bar.
Don't worry: Everyone left their shirts on, though a few of Duchovny's bandmates kicked off their shoes, or at least pretended to, getting into the spirit.
It was a night for fun, Duchovny remarked early on, words his loud, loose and loyal audience heeded.
Few of those fans saw this night coming, until May at the earliest, when the TV star surprised the public with the release of his debut folksy-rock album, waiting until just a few weeks ago to announce a Pittsburgh show.
You could tell Sunday that Duchovny is still new to concert performing. His singing voice sounded thin, a bit timid and short of range. Let's just say if he was doing a blind audition for NBC's "The Voice," I doubt any the judges would have turned their seats and picked him.
Though here's the thing: His Pittsburgh fans didn't care. They loved him, and cheered robustly at the conclusion of his original songs.
That's the power of celebrity, as fans basked in the opportunity of sharing close quarters with a famous person they've admired for many years.
They were willing to overlook Duchovny's unpolished singing skills, and appreciate his effort, sincerity and warm, friendly stage persona, backed by a talented five-man band that rocked out more than anticipated.
The band set sail on its 16-song set with "3000" as Duchovny quickly endeared himself further by mimicking a Pittsburgh dialect when repeatedly mentioning the Pittsburgh "Stillers."
"I love the accent," he said.
A woman tossed on stage her white bra on which she had scribbled her 724-area code phone number.
Reaching for his plastic cup filled with a slushy-looking beverage, the 55-year-old Duchovny said, "I'm going to have a drink and invite you to do it, too," as the band forged ahead with "Let It Rain."
That band, including Pat McCusker on guitar, sounded in the vein of the Wallflowers or the Gin Blossoms, and at their heartiest, Tom Petty's Heartbreakers.
Duchovny introduced a song not from his album, "Stay on the Train," written for his now 16-year-old daughter as encouragement for her to ride out life's hard times.
The audience lovefest continued, as someone handed Duchovny a bouquet of flowers that he stuffed into his front pocket, until he realized that looked kind of funny. For the $100 a pop VIP meet-and-greet before the show, he wore a red T-shirt that said "beets," though his concert attire was a plain black T-shirt layered with a brown leather jacket he eventually shed to a chorus of delighted screams from female fans, who outnumbered the guys by about a 65-35 percent margin.
"The Rain Song" earned big applause, as did a ballad, "Stars."
Duchovny and his band covered the Flaming Lips' "Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots Part I," an excellent choice because it showed Duchovny's hipness and wasn't an over-reach for him, since The Lips' singer, Pittsburgh native Wayne Coyne, has a wispy voice, too.
A male fan shouted "X-Files!" to which Duchovny replied, "That's true, I did do that show."
Often gripping the mic stand with two hands, Duchovny's stage moves grew looser as the night wore on, with him busting out a bit of a shuffle for "Another Year," one of his best songs, with a bit of a country-western gallop.
He seemed at his most confident singing his debut single and album title track, "Hell or Highwater," right before a three-song encore -- with Duchovny and the band wearing circa '79 Pittsburgh Pirates hats -- that included another run through "Let It Rain," this time, stripped down.
Then came another wise cover pick, Sly and the Family Stone's "Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin)," with its message of acceptance and touting the joys of dancing and singing to a simple song quite appropriate for the evening.
source: thetimes
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