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Gov't Mule @ House OF
Blues Sludge...Beyond Grunge Click here for Murf's Interview of Warren Haynes Well Thursday night I was run over by a truck and kicked by a Mule. An unusually excellent lineup at the House Of Blues (i.e. the opening act as good as the headliner) gave everyone a full night of really good music. I admit I'm a sucker for power trios....I love groups like Cream, Mountain, Chris Duarte, Robin Trower, etc... who combine a single guitar, bass and drums into great rock and roll and blues. There's something about a basic three piece group that I really like. Gov't Mule is one part Cream, One part Mountain, One part jam band, and several parts of other genre's and bands. Not too many people are doing that these days and its a welcome change from the "depressed bitchy woman who hate men" music that seems to be all you hear these days. Warren Haynes (vocals and guitar, Allen Woody (bass), and Matt Abts (drums) put on an excellent show even though Warren had a head cold and was not feeling his best. Opening up with the song "Grinnin' In Your Face", they played several songs from the new CD "Dose". Even thought the show was not up to the intensity of their sold out shows at the Sapphire Supper club,(due to Warren's cold) they still put on an excellent set for two hours and twenty minutes of heavy power trio music. Playing original music along with music as diverse as the Beatles "She Said, She said" they kept the appreciative audience going all night. The original set lasted 90 minutes, and then they came out with Derek Trucks and Bill McKay (keyboards for Derek) for a 50 minute three song encore set. Derek and Warren traded licks for quite a while on "Spanish Moon". The only problem was that the HOB sound guys did not have Derek up very high in the mix until later in the set. There were shouts of "turn up the slide guitar" coming from the crowd until things got better. There were at least three tapers in the hall so tapes of the show will be circulating amongst the Gov't Mule fan club. (send e-mail to EMULE@NETSPACE.ORG to find out about the fan club and to obtain information about tape trading). Gov't Mule is one a group of bands that allow taping of their shows. It allows the fans to get tapes of the shows they go to and helps spread the word about the band. I think this is a highly intelligent idea and there are several successful bands out there who credit their success to the tape trading fans. Overall...Gov't Mule gets a 10 even though Warren was sick. |
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