The last time hard rocking slide-guitarist Warren Haynes came to Boston, it was at the end of October on a four-night stint at the Orpheum Theater with Phil Lesh and Friends. Haynes returned to Boston on Election Day, but this time with some new friends and at a new venue. The newly reopened and revamped Paradise Rock Club was the host for a Warren Haynes and Matt Abts acoustic show last Tuesday. Haynes and Abts are both members of Government Mule, but also play with other bands including Phil Lesh and Friends and Blue Floyd, respectively. These two stellar musicians gave the club a soulful grand opening with their bluesy-rock style.
The Paradise was nearly filled to its 650-person capacity to see the remnants of the southern improvisational rock group Gov’t Mule play in a whole new element. This Allman Brothers-style band usually plays shows heavily laced with Warren Haynes’ thick slide guitar riffs, Matt Abts pounding out licks on the drums and Allen Woody’s creative style of bass playing. All these elements combine to make Gov’t Mule quite a unique band. However, on August 26, Allen Woody, bassist for the blues-rock jam band died of still undetermined causes.
Since they officially formed in 1997, Gov’t Mule was known as the “bad boy” group of the improvisational rock scene. In relation to the bouncy bluegrass sound of the String Cheese Incident and the psychedelic improvisation of Phish, Gov’t Mule’s sound is heavier and keeps its arrangement to the guitar, bass guitar and drums sound that is carried by Haynes’ unequaled talent on the slide guitar.
In memory of Woody, the two remaining members have embarked on a series of small-venue acoustic shows, which began in Philadelphia and will wind up down south opening for Ben Harper and The Innocent Criminals fall tour. The acoustic sets feature many of Gov’t Mule’s original songs, but also include various covers that better accommodate the acoustic setting. Haynes and Abts have altered the traditional acoustic arrangement, with Haynes playing several different styles of guitar and Abts using a small drum set that includes various percussion instruments.
Fittingly, Mule opened the first set with the slow blues original “Old Friend.” This opener assured the crowd that the show was going to be a somber remembrance of their deceased band member. Haynes, a member of the Allman Brothers Band for eight years, used a bottleneck slide to add some of his famed blues riffs to the opening seven songs. Abts drumming sped up and slowed down to accommodate Haynes thick southern voice. The clearly emotional Haynes placed the crowd in a trance with the low tempo blues. The mood in the venue raised a notch when, after a heartfelt “To Lay Me Down,” a roadie handed Haynes an electric guitar, and the two musicians started into a classic Haynes blues slide guitar version of “The Same Thing.” Abts drumming picked up a notch to close out the first set.
The second set progressed, in the same way as the first, from low-tempo acoustic guitar songs into heavy jam-filled slide electric guitar. Abts again followed suit and pounded the crowd into a flurry with his stick work. Haynes and Abts closed out the show with three crowd favorites. First, a powerful rendition of Van Morrison’s “And It Stoned Me.” This was followed by two emotion-laced Mule originals, “Into The Mystic” and “Soulshine.” A friend of the band, Kevin Kinney, came out for the encore to exchange guitar licks and vocals with Haynes.
After the last song, someone in the audience yelled out, “We all miss Woody, but you’re surrounded by friends here.” That immediately caught Haynes’ attention, and he said that Gov’t Mule would continue, but he didn’t know what the future held. Whatever the future does hold for the band, their soul filled style of blues will be welcome in any way they deliver it.
Be the first to comment on this article!