Warren Haynes logs more miles on the road than just about anyone. Between the Allman Brothers Band and Gov’t Mule and just about any band under the sun if he happens to be off the road, the man is unstoppable.
It’s no surprise that Mule embarked on a European tour to open up July with a two-night run at the Brooklyn Bowl London. With Galactic, Raekwon and Phil Lesh and the Terrapin Family Band all on the schedule for the month of July alone, things are certainly picking up for the London outpost of the Williamsburg mainstay.
After a spirited show to open up the tour, which featured a sit-in from The Cure‘s Reeves Gabriels, the quartet returned to the Bowl for night two. They kicked off their set with a quick romp through “Bad Man Walking,” but things really picked up when they got the crowd to sing along with “Lay Your Burden Down.” From “Burden,” the band seamlessly transitioned into the blues standard “Smokestack Lightning,” before going back into “Lay Your Burden Down.”
The next highlight of the first set came in the form of a set closing sandwich of “Mule” into “Who Do You Love?” before coming back into “Mule” to close out the first frame.
While set one had its moments, set two was stellar from tape to tape. Opening with “John the Revelator,” things really picked up when the band played “Gameface.” A few minutes into the Mule original, the familiar opening lick of “Mountain Jam” rang out from Haynes’ guitar. While the set list registers it as only a tease, I as well as a litany of others fans in attendance were overjoyed at the Allman Brothers classic coming from the quartet on stage.
After “When the World Gets Small,” the band closed out the set in grand style. Bringing out saxaphonist Joe McGolohon, the band launched into the always frenetic “Devil Likes it Slow” before handing the keys to the stage over to drummer Matt Abts. While I occasionally find drum solos self-indulgent, Abts did an excellent job of keeping things fresh and interesting throughout his few minutes of alone time.
To finish things up, the band played the pairing of classic Mule originals “Slackjaw Jezebel” and “Thorazine Shuffle” as a quartet with excellent work on the keys from Danny Louis throughout the whole show, but particularly during the last two songs.
For the encore slot, the band brought out keyboardist Don Airey, who has played with a diverse group of acts and is now a member of Deep Purple, and guitarist Bernie Marsden of Whitesnake fame. With the two guests joining the stage in typical Mule fashion, the band played a solid version of “Don’t Let Me Be Misunderstood.” Things really picked up when Joe McGolohon came back out for a 10-minute rendition of the Bobby “Blue” Bland original “Ain’t No Love In the Heart of the City,” that was arguably made famous by Whitesnake.
It was also nice to see that Mule’s tradition of bringing out guests made its way across the pond. Overall, the enthusiastic crowd, comprised of more Gov’t Mule shirts than I’ve ever seen before, lapped up the fantastic show from the blues rock quartet from start to finish.
-Brian Weidy (@frostedweidies)