Chad Berndtson

Priorities change, families have needs and jobs burn energy, so when you can still call your live music diet healthy – that definition’s up to you, friend-o – you’re privileged. As you get older, live music performance becomes no less indispensible. It’s just that you just gotta pick your spots better, right? Or try to, at least?

Here are 15 shows that, for me, stood out from the past twelve months.

1. Another One For Woody, Roseland (NYC), Nov. 22

Benefit shows with pre-determined guests and anticipated, formulated “wow” moments have a way of disappointing. But the best ones – and Another One for Woody was among the two or three best I’ve ever seen – meet expectations and then transcend them through a winning combination of warmth, surprise, thoroughness and dazzling performance.

AOFW had all of that, and then some. You had predictable emotional pushbuttons (Savannah Woody singing on Soulshine) and expected collaborations (I Shall Be Released? Yep. Simple Man? Of course.) But you also had heartfelt stories, had-to-be-there grace notes, blistering jams and a crowd that was totally into it and kept the energy up for nearly six hours. The North Mississippi Allstars duo and Mule were fun, but whoever lit a fire under the Allmans is to be commended; the band was at its strongest since the fabled 2009 Beacon run, blazing through its set and keeping it that way straight through a Whipping Post for the ages. Somewhere, Woody was smilin’.

• Review: Another One For Woody

READ ON for more of Chad’s Fine 15 – Best Shows of 2010…

Gov’t Mule @ Beacon Theatre, December 31

Last night was one of the wildest, weirdest Mule shows ever. On the one hand, they played with as much intensity and firepower as I’ve seen in the last five years. On the other, they played like a band definitely ready for a break — haphazard, slapdash at times, randomly explosive — and after the first set, pretty much threw any concept of show pacing out the window.

First set and the first part of the second set was greatest hits Mule: a combination of classic (and overplayed) Mule songs, I think about 2-3 from each of the studio albums, performed ably to extraordinarily. Highs were many, especially a ripsnorting Time to Confess, a wrenching, emotional No Need to Suffer, and a volcanic Game Face with a gooey, psychedelic middle, each tonal shift flavored with impressive work from Jorgen Carlsson.

Gov’t Mule – Beacon Theatre, New York, NY
I: Mule with Kirk West Introduction, Painted Silver Light, Gameface, Blind Man In The Dark, Bad Little Doggie, No Need To Suffer, Beautifully Broken, Banks Of The Deep End, Trying Not To Fall, Time To Confess with Get Up, Stand Up Tease, Thorazine Shuffle

II: Slackjaw Jezebel, Brand New Angel, Steppin’ Lightly, Broke Down On The Brazos, New Years Countdown, Achilles Last Stand * , Bridge Of Sighs * , Nantucket Sleighride * with Corky Laing, Bad Company * , Yer Blues *

Shakedown Street *, Sugaree with Jon Herington & Bill Evans, Sco-Mule with Jon Herington & Bill Evans, Oye Como Va Tease & Dance To The Music Lyrics, Afro Blue with Bill Evans & Oz Noy, Norwegian Wood Tease
* First Time Played

Source: JamBase via  mule.net & nokin in the comments

After the New Year’s Countdown came the fan-voted covers, and Warren said from the stage that Zeppelin’s Achilles Last Stand and Mountain’s Nantucket Sleighride were the No. 1 and No. 2 voted selections (really?). Achilles was a blast — a rip roaring, mindfucking blast — and the band then moved into slow-marinating, colder-toned territory with Bridge of Sighs. Mountain’s own Corky Laing did what basically amounted to a walk-on — Hi Corky, good to see you! — sitting in for that coursing Sleighride, and then the band summoned two more: a decent Bad Company, and then a nasty, nasty Yer Blues that found Warren howling at the top of his lungs and some guitar acrobatics from both the man himself and Dastardly Danny Louis.

READ ON for more of Chad’s thoughts from Mule NYE…

Another One For Woody @ Roseland Ballroom, November 22

By now, if you have even passing interest in what went down at Roseland last night, you’ve seen the setlists, soaked up the cool sit-ins, watched some video and admired, from afar, that when Warren Haynes puts together a guest-laden benefit event, he means Event. Having spent the near six hours it took to get to the finish line, your humble correspondent can say without hesitation that it measured up to the hype – and the ticket price – and then some. Show of the year, in many respects: not only did the Allmans, especially, clear the high bar of expectations, but most importantly, it’s also something that, yep, ol’ Woody would have loved.

Reviewing shows like Another One for Woody is a tricky business, as there’s not much in the way of continuity or the flow like you’d find at a “normal” show. In other words, you expect anchoring acts, filled with guests and setlists cleverly designed to push emotional buttons, and you’re aware of those constructions going in, during the show, and after. And yet, you find the rare, Last Waltzian blowout that does all those things — then transcends them — on the strength of top-notch playing, warm camaraderie in the name of a good cause and a good man, a terrific, fully engaged crowd, and grace notes (metaphorically speaking) amidst all the power chords. Here are 10 things I’ll keep with me from Another One for Woody, in no particular order.

The First Half Of NMAS

Whiskey Rock-a-Roller was a hoot, and so was the extended Gordie Johnson sit-in. But how much fun was it to see Luther and Cody Dickinson as a duo, kicking up a fearsome country blues racket with just fuzzed-out guitar and hammering drums? Here’s a band that I remember loving a long time ago, when their sound wasn’t so polished and their jams were country-fried and greased up. They were clearly into it, and while bassist Chris Chew – who wasn’t there – is an integral part of what makes the NMAS the NMAS, this was a solid 20 minutes of down-home hill country duo shit, naturally dirty.

READ ON for nine more highlights from Another One For Woody…

The Jimmy Herring Band @ Highline Ballroom – November 15

When Jimmy Herring picks up a guitar and starts in on one of those astoundingly rich improvisational flights, it’s tough to get enough. He’s the type of player, be it with Panic or in any other context, for whom warmth and brilliance are as characteristic as technique and intensity – an always-dazzling display, but not a straight clinic, and never cold. He can sparkle, he can wail, he can bring ferocious energy, he can play with comfortable restraint and an ear for dynamics, and, like his good buddy Derek Trucks, he can consistently confound expectations for what should happen during a guitar solo. You’re drawn in and mesmerized and helpless to resist.

That’s one of the reasons that this much-welcome Jimmy Herring Band tour has been a success, and the Highline Ballroom show, nearly sold out, was two hours of expansive, psychedelic bliss. Another reason, though, is that Herring has taken an inherently indulgent format – the guitar wizard who puts together a solo band focused on all-instrumental jazz-rock – and hasn’t just left it as an excuse for a pick-up jam. We know he can play. We’ve learned he’s a strong bandleader: mindful of group dynamics, and knowing when to pour it on and when to get out of his own way.

Herring is the group’s center of attention and it’s his improvisations that drive the show, but he’s created something so much richer than a set of instrumentals with excuses for guitar heroics. Every selection at the Highline, whether a Herring original or a worked-over chestnut from the Meters, Jeff Beck, Zeppelin, the Beatles or elsewhere, felt meaningful and turned out, with a band that burrowed deep inside and fleshed out as many improvisational possibilities within as they could.

READ ON for more on the Jimmy Herring Band…

I say, “Warren,” and you know exactly who I’m talking about, because, let’s face it, there are well-known musicians in this scene, and then there are the select few for whom a one-name utterance is more than enough. “Warren” qualifies. Hell, I could just leave it at, “How you feelin’, huh?” and you’d probably still know who it is.

Catching up with the mighty Warren Haynes is always a catch-as-catch-can affair: he’s expressive and thoughtful in his answers, but with so much on his plate at all times, you run the risk of missing something if you stay on one subject too long. There’s a lot to touch on, as always: Mule is wrapping up one of its most successful touring years ever, but staying off the road for much of 2011. There are monster events like the Island Exodus — in which he’ll return, with the Mule, Ron Holloway, Eric Krasno’s Chapter 2 and Trombone Shorty in tow, to Jamaica for an intimate festival experience in January – and Another One for Woody, a ten-years-gone charity blowout on Nov. 22 in honor of original Mule anchor Allen Woody. Oh, and Warren is still a core member, don’t forget, of the Allman Brothers Band, who may or may not be returning to the Beacon Theater in March (read on to find out).

Perhaps most intriguingly, though, is that 2011 will bring new music from Haynes that doesn’t fall into any of those buckets. At the forthcoming Christmas Jam, he’ll debut a new Warren Haynes Band that scratches a long-burning soul and R&B itch for Haynes. The core band includes one-time Mule bassist and Meters legend George Porter Jr., and Dumpstaphunkers Ivan Neville and Raymond Weber on keys and drums respectively, and the expanded unit brings in frequent Haynes sideman Ron Holloway on saxophone, former Faces mainstay Ian McLagan on keyboards in tandem with Neville, and the mesmerizing blues and soul singer Ruthie Foster. An album is on the way, and so is a tour.

Buckle up, as we cover the bases with the one and only Warren Haynes:

HIDDEN TRACK: There are so many things to get to, but I wanted to start with some of the most pressing for Mule fans and expand out to other things you’ve got going on. Following the West Coast run, the charity shows, New Year’s and Island Exodus, Mule’s going to be taking some time off the road in 2011. Can you talk about why that’s happening?

WARREN HAYNES: We’re going to take a well-deserved break, and it’s something we’ve been talking about for several years. The timing is right now. We’ve been hitting it hard for 16 years, and it’ll also give us some time to relax and then start working on another studio record, but it also gives me an opportunity to release my solo record, which I plan to do sometime around May, and tour behind it. So it’s not like I’m going to be off the road. I think all the guys will be doing things, it’s just Mule, as an entity, that will be taking a rest. READ ON for more of Chad’s chat with Warren Haynes…

If you’ve been nose-to-grindstone in the music industry for decades, you hope to stay busy. And now, more than ever, it seems, Jeff Mattson’s cup runneth over.

Although long considered a musician’s musician with wicked guitar chops and a lived-in voice, and best known for the Zen Tricksters and a stint with Phil Lesh & Friends in the late 1990s, some of Mattson’s biggest breaks have come only in the past few years. First came a partnership with Donna Jean Godchaux-MacKay, with whom Mattson clicked instantly, going on to form what both musicians consider one of their most creative projects. And late last year, with John Kadlecik’s departure from Dark Star Orchestra imminent, Mattson stepped into the “Jerry” role in DSO so seamlessly that by the time he formally joined the band, in June 2010, it seemed just that: a formality. The role was his.

Hidden Track had a chance to visit with Mattson at his Long Island home a few weeks back, part of a rare break for the guitarist and singer between exhausting DSO tour legs. It was one of those conversations where 50 minutes flow by like five, with so much to touch upon, and Mattson was in a mood to expound.

HIDDEN TRACK: Watching you perform with DSO now, you’ve slipped into this role so easily. Obviously you’ve known these guys for a while but it’s a transition all the same. Going back, when did you first hook up with the DSO gang?

JEFF MATTSON: When did I first meet them?

HT: Right, you’ve known them for years and I can remember seeing the Zen Tricksters and DSO sharing bills some eight, nine years ago.

JM: Yeah, I think it was back about then, down south somewhere, where the Zen Tricksters opened for DSO. The first time we encountered each other there was, well, maybe a little gentle competition, but a good vibe between us, too. Then, in 2003, the Zen Tricksters went out as an acoustic trio, just Klyph (Black), Tommy (Circosta) and me, and did something like 10 shows opening for them. We got to know them better and there was mutual respect, and we both saw it as we’re on the same mission, instead of competing. And frankly, they’re a lot more successful than we ever were [laughs], and we weren’t much of a threat! But we had our niche.

READ ON for more of Chad’s chat with Jeff Mattson…

Stockholm Syndrome @ Brooklyn Bowl – September 12

Faced with reviewing a show like the barnburner Stockholm Syndrome put on at Brooklyn Bowl, you’re tempted to focus on the visceral impact. But for the uninitiated, know first it’s a quintessentially Jerry Joseph band, and that means punch. The soulful, merciless Joseph was the combination bar band howler, insightful folk-poet and razor-witted iconoclast long before the Hold Steady’s Craig Finn and other more fashionable frontmen, and he clearly loves this lineup.

But it’s not only Jerry Joseph and friends, it’s Jerry Joseph and entirely like-minded hellraisers. It means the protean Wally Ingram behind the kit, and the heavy-heavy-heavy, yet amazingly supple Dave Schools bass anchor. It means the one-two punch of Danny Louis and Eric McFadden, both mischievous improvisers, both preferring the unpredictable palettes of acid blues and psychedelic jazz to modal rock solos. It means you take that fivesome, jack up the whole glorious thing to ear-splitting volumes, and spin tales of love and disaster at a relentless pace ad with the verve of a garage band.

It’s a supergroup that’s often transcendent and only occasionally feels like a collection of excellent players passing the baton around. So well do these musicians gel onstage, in fact, that you wonder if the decent-to-quite strong range of original material they’ve released so far could become great if any of them had his full time and energies to devote to it.

READ ON for more on Stockholm Syndrome at the Bowl…

Gov’t Mule @ Summerstage, August 11

Take a good look at the extended Allman Brothers family and you see the winds of change blowing insistently: the mothership band has begun its slow fade to black, and Derek Trucks has put his former focus (temporarily?) on ice in favor of an encouraging, if not yet fully baked supergroup with the missus.

Gov’t Mule, however, is bucking that trend: go to a Mule show in 2010 and you’ll see a band that hasn’t been this comfortable with itself in years, and possibly since the Allen Woody days. Yes, Mule shows have always had a certain intensity – they remain, to me, the closest thing the jam scene has to a fail-safe concert – but you get the sense that Warren Haynes and his (new and old) brothers of the road have finally cohered. They’re a quartet with lots of meat on its bones and a well-stocked idea cellar, one that can execute all the major moves in the Mule playbook, as well as add some new ones, and, finally, with By a Thread, promote new material worthy of its concert bravado.

I reference that comfort level because Mule’s return to Central Park had, despite its unorthodox, one-set/double-encore structure and parade of guests, all the hallmarks of a terrific Mule show circa 2010, and a few of the most common problems. And that’s “problems” relatively speaking; the Mule is wonderfully consistent, it would just be a shame to see them get a little too comfortable.

READ ON for more of Chad’s thoughts on Mule…

Los Lobos @ Bowery Ballroom, August 4

Los Lobos have humility, chops and professionalism to spare, and on a good night, these things propel them, and on a less-than-good night, maintain them. They’re hard to criticize because they just don’t falter: they play that broad, experienced mix of canciones, cumbias and folk songs with rock, blues, country and a whole host of other things, and do it with equal helpings of grace, raunch and bravado.

Sure, album-wise, they’ve been in something of a holding pattern since at least Good Morning Aztlan, and their shows don’t always have the sustained spark of yesteryear. And long-held Los Lobos quibbles – maybe they could mix it up a little more? why again did they bring Louie Perez out behind the drumkit in the mid 1990s to add another guitar voice and utility player? – are what they are at this point. But you’re grateful to have ‘em; rare is the Lobos show that fails to convince you of that.

They were in a peppy and giving mood at Bowery – a small room for them – which kicked off with a passionate Emily opener and dove into range of deep-catalog cuts (how about that filthy Georgia Slop!) sprinkled among the usual rockers (Don’t Worry Baby), cumbias (Chuco’s Cumbia, the heaving Maricela), genre-shifting charmers (still love that accordion on their typically fizzy take on Flaco Jimenez’s Ay Te Dejo En San Antonio) and just plain beautiful Los Lobos staples (the ancient folk tune Volver, Volver – which always seems to hit just as the crowd is slipping from buzzed to drunk and ready to sing).

READ ON for more from Chad on Los Lobos @ the Bowery…