The legacy of Warren Haynes continues to grow as his baby Gov't Mule expands beyond its original three-piece incarnation. The man in black is gaining icon status due to his tour of duty in some of the most highly respected bands in the scene. Meanwhile, Gov't Mule's live shows are growing in epic stature with each and every new tour presenting the audiences with new adventures in the song catalogs and eclectic covers. The current package of the Mule is wrapped around Haynes, drummer Matt Abst, keyboardist Danny Louis, and bassist Andy Hess from the Black Crowes. The big anticipation was the arrival of saxophonist Karl Denson who has been touring with Gov't Mule for a run of seven shows in February: this concert being the last. The big question of the night was would this funky leader be able to blend into the blues growl of the Mule? The show at the Memorial Auditorium in Burlington proved how the Mule can ease a dominant woodwind artist to fall prey to their sound and still keep it legit.
The show opened with a surprise cover of Radiohead's classic "Creep" built around the familiar keyboard riff keeping the song recognizable within Haynes's clearly for the better un-alternative vocals. The power guitar riff of "Driving Rain," with it's "Enter Sandman" demeanor shows the powerful results of a Mule- James Hetfield collaboration. The energy in the room raced to a hardcore momentum that almost shook the scoreboard from the rafters in this old gymnasium. From there the Mule galloped into the blues rocker "Larger than Life" with the creepy intro guitar riff, perhaps the epitome of the Mule sound: grinding, balls to the wall, no holds barred blues rock. It wouldn't take long until the band would ride the wave further down the thunder rock belt into the classic "Monkey Hill". This brought upon the evening's first blare of Mr. Energy himself, Karl Denson scorched the tune to another level while playing a spit valve soaking lead around the "I Want You (She's So Heavy)" theme from the Beatles. Abts threw in a funky beat as the band led into the Little Feat tune, "Spanish Moon." Denson elevated the song to higher ground with "Greyboy" solos flying on top of Abt's bouncy beats. "Devil Likes It Slow" continued the pace into a jazzy exploration that gave Danny Louis his first extended solo of the night. Next tune, "32-20 Blues" added guest guitarist Dick Easter for a traditional blues solo which had a soulful "Spill the Wine" jam. The first set was already almost an hour and a half long, but there was room for a timeless classic, as Louis laid down the intro to "Soulshine". Since Gov't Mule has been touring with keyboard players, whether it be Chuck Leavell, Rob Barraco or Danny Louis, the intro has developed into an epic of it's own, riding the jazzy harmonies into the anticipation of Hayne's first guitar chords. It's not often a slower song can pick up the crowd's energy and "Soulshine" one of the world's finest written songs, has the power to send the crowd to set break feeling mighty fine.
In similar vain of the first set, the band opened with a cover, this time Led Zeppelin's "Trampled Under Foot," set the tone as a perfect high energy groovy opener, leading into "Temporary Saint," another text book Mule tune. This was highlighted by the night's most blistering Haynes's guitar solo teasing the audience to falling in deeper. The new bass players have been doing a spectacular job of recreating the Mule book of songs and adding their own covers in to the mix. The opening bass lines of "Thorazine Shuffle" made you think back right away to Allen Woody. When he performed this thunderous bass line that the song is built around, a bear would come out of hibernation. Hess's attempt was solid but not able to evoke the thunder of past versions, and showed that someone was missing on stage. The song led into an adventurous jam with a nasty Denson solo that blew the roof off "The Shuffle." A slow tinged ballad ballad, "I've Got Dreams To Remember," followed, but it was dragged out in spots. This led into a budding Mule cover classic, "Effigy,' built around Hayne's tingling vocals. This led into a nice bouncy jam built around Abt's African style beats, leading into an extended drum solo, bursting back into "Effigy." The rest of the set was pure psychedelic mayhem as the band jumped into some spacey boundaries of 60's blues drenched sonic exploration called, "Afro Blue," that had that Allman Brothers at their most exploratory written all over it. It's great to witness what Denson can ad in a non-funk dance setting as his work on the flute was magical during "Afro Blue" and the band jammed into a spacey bucket one would not think Karl Denson could actually pull off. It shows this man is not a one-genre wonder and continues to expand his musical resume. "Blind Man in the Dark" provided another monster ride with Denson adding percussion building the song back into its epic refrain.
Gov't Mule continues to build its legacy on its growing set list and influx of instruments, influences and musicians. Led by a beast of a guitarist and enormously soulful singer, the Mule continues to gain fans and positive acclaim. With a $26 ticket price you can already feel the Mule stock rising. Anticipation is running high as to who the new permanent bass player (yet to be announced) will be, but it's almost scary to foresee how comfortable and powerful the newest edition of Gov't Mule will tear apart the ears of their listeners. The show at the Memorial Auditorium proved the Mule carries the torch of improvisational blues-rock to areas far beyond traditional boundaries.
