Gov’t Mule Give It Up To Traffic’s ‘Barleycorn’ & ‘Low Spark’ Albums In Albany (SHOW REVIEW)

Over the years, the Palace Theatre in Albany, New York has been a regular Fall Tour stop for Gov’t Mule. What made their most recent performance on October 29th so unique compared to past shows was that this year, the New York Capitol venue hosted Gov’t Mule’s annual Halloween celebration. The performance honored the band’s musical costume tradition by taking on the songs of Traffic for the second set. To bring the English rock group’s kaleidoscopic music to life, the four-piece welcomed percussionist Bobby Allende and saxophonist Steve Elson to the fold, who both contributed the jazzy avant-garde flavors and polyrhythmic grooves that were essential to Traffic’s sound.
 The first set showcased what Gov’t Mule does best on any given night. There was Mountain-inspired hard rock heard in the motor revving set opener “World Boss” and in the pummeling “Eternity’s Breath” later on. They could deliver slow burning blues with “Mother Earth” and inspire puff clouds with the lava lamp rock of “Temporary Saint.” Epic jams and celestial instrumental passages of Jimi Hendrix’s “Third Stone From the Sun” and the Grateful Dead’s “St. Stephen” were woven into songs. The set-closing “Time to Confess,” which started off as a reggae blues stomp, transitioned into one of the epic jams of the night. Most of the ground covered in the first set  made it onto their recent archival releases like The Tel Star Sessions and the Georgia Bootleg Box as well as their last studio album Shout!.
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The selections from the Traffic song catalog were primarily culled from two seminal studio albums (John Barleycorn Must Die and The Low Spark of High Heeled Boys) and many of the live gems that commonly made it on the band’s setlists back in the sixties and early seventies. The second set opener “Pearly Queen,” along with “Rock and Roll Stew” were suited for the Mule’s usual heavy and heady sounds, and could pass for original material if the audience wasn’t aware of who authored the songs. With the inclusion of Allende and Elson, the band was able to voyage into more expansive terrain heard on Traffic’s later records. On “Glad,” the temporary ensemble took the form of an electric mini-orchestra led by the potent piano boogie laid down by Danny Louis. They soared on that funky groove of “Empty Pages” as Warren Haynes sang Steve Winwood’s old parts with soul of his own. They immersed themselves into “The Low Spark of High-Heeled Boys“ and delivered a version that glistened with the color, pop, jazz and space of the masterpiece recording heard on the album of the same name.

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The performance’s success lied not only in pulling off ambitious arrangements, but also the feeling that they put into the chosen songs. “Shouldn’t Have Took More Than You Gave” could make one wonder if melancholy ever sounded so beautiful. “Medicated Goo” featured  killer Warren Haynes guitar heroics, as did the set closing “Light Up or Leave Me Alone.”
Sound issues made the vocals sound faint during the first couple of songs during the first set.  Warren Haynes wasn’t satisfied with the band’s take of “(Sometimes I Feel So) Uninspired” played during the second set, so he asked the audience if he could play it again as part of an encore (which they did.) While it may not have been the smoothest performance by the band, it was certainly the band at their most daring. By the time they wrapped up the “Mule-A-Ween” performance with the obligatory “Dear Mr. Fantasy,” the band had played over a dozen Traffic songs, with eight of them being debuts, (and all of them being played with two outside players that proved an easy chemistry with the usual Mule foursome. These Halloween shows may require a great deal of effort to bring to fruition, from learning a set’s worth of new material to introducing foreign musicians to the equation, but the result is a road full of once-in-a-lifetime surprises that make such events a singular experience that has the fans always coming back for more.

 

Gov't Mule Setlist Palace Theatre, Albany, NY, USA 2016, 2016 Fall Tour

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3 Responses

  1. Hey Joe, that was a good review, and being a huge Traffic fan, I sure wish I had been there. Just wanted to give you a heads up- in “the performance’s success lied…” “lied” should be “lay.” “Lay” is the past tense of “lie,” unless you are speaking of an untruth. (“She lied to me.”) That is a difficult verb, and it feels awkward to say “lay” instead of “layed” or “lied.” Hope I didn’t make you mad, that was a good and well-written review. Peace BK

  2. God, I wish I could have been there. Warren Haynes is awesome, as well as a fellow North Carolinian. Love him with the truly wonderful Allman Brothers B and G Mule. I’m not very familiar with his groups work, but I definitely plan on checking it out soon. Peace out!

  3. Not too familiar with the Mule but have loved Warren Hayes playing ever since “The Mountains Win Again”. But why does the Mule play so many other groups’ songs?

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