Gov't Mule Show

I’ve been a Gov't Mule and Warren Haynes fan since the mid 90's but I had never seen Mule play live until last night. My friend Don and I went to the Gov't Mule concert at the Bank of America Pavillion in Boston. It was a fantastic show.



The opening act was Xavier Rudd. I can’t say much about his performance, as I was busy enjoying a couple of pre-show beers and slices of Pizza, but he has a cool bluesy sound enhanced with traditional Australian Aboriginal didjeridu.



With a couple of beers down, Don and I headed to our seats to watch Robert Randolph and The Family band. (Our seats were amazing – 15 rows back, center stage, right next to the tapers. Awesome.) Robert Randolph is a great pedal steel guitar player and he and the Family Band ripped through some blazing rocks and blues tunes. I had never heard of Robert Randolph before but I plan to pick up at least one of his CD. He’s a passionate and electric roots rock and blues player. If you ever get a chance to see him and his band, don’t pass it up, they are fun and smokin’ hot.



Mule came on around 9:00. I can’t recall the exact set list (there was a lot of herbal smoke in the air) but it was a good mix of Mule’s blues and rock tunes. The second set opened up with a few verses of a rather slow gospel like piece that left everyone relaxing in their seats, but this was just a short ruse before Mule transitioned into a blazing and crowd please rendition of Warren’s most famous song from his Allman Brother’s recordings, Soul Shine. Other notable rockers included Larger than Life, Mule, Lola Leave Your Light On, Thorazine Shuffle, Slackjaw Jezebel, Sam and John The Revelator.



For the encores Robert Randolph joined Mule on stage and they rocked through some more great tunes. At this point the effect of the kids in front of us passing around their tenth (not an exageration) 'herbal cigarette' must have really been getting to me because I can't for the life of me remember which songs they played. The light show was pretty fantastic however.



I can't wait until Mule comes around again. I wont pass up the chance to see them in the future.

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