Gov’t Mule Honors Traffic At Mule-O-Ween Concert In Albany – Review, Photos, Videos & Setlist

Words & Images by: Bryan Lasky

Gov’t Mule :: Palace Theatre :: Albany, NY

View Bryan’s photos in the gallery below his recap as well as video of Mule covering Traffic.

Last night Gov’t Mule continued their Mule-O-Ween tradition at the gorgeous Palace Theatre in Albany. It was standing room only near the stage and the crowd screamed out for Warren Haynes and Mule from the opening notes of the show through the encore.

Despite having some time off between the late summer tour and this brief Halloween run, the whole band sounded tight. Mule started strong out of the gates with a fiery “World Boss” > “Mother Earth” combo that let Warren rip the guitar up early and often. Watching the rest of the band go to work alongside Warren is always wonderful. Matt Abts is a machine on the drums, making it look incredible easy, as is Jorgen Carlsson on bass. Danny Louis is the special ingredient in the band adding little fills on his various keyboards and backup vocals for the songs. A fun “Third Stone From the Sun” tease was placed inside the jam in “Trane”. The crowd went wild when Mule found its footing with a “St. Stephen” tease within “Eternity’s Breath” that wound up being a full fledged instrumental jam on the Dead song.

After a 40 minute break that could have been a little shorter, Warren and company brought out Steve Elson and Bobby Allende to aid them on a full set of Traffic songs. A fantastic “Pearly Queen” opened up the set with an adventurous jam that led into “Stranger To Himself”. During “Stranger” both Steve and Bobby got to show off what they brought to the night with a saxophone solo and conga solo respectively. The usual Mule backdrop was nowhere to be found for this set, as a diamond shaped backdrop was put up in its place with a psychedelic light show taking over behind the band. At times during the set you could close your eyes and just picture Traffic being up on stage. The “Glad” > “Freedom Rider” combo was a perfect example of it. The renditions of both songs were absolutely perfect. It was great to see and hear Warren and Danny split up Steve Winwood’s role in Traffic as the guitar and piano player. The crowd went wild when the band finally went into “Low Spark of High-Heeled Boys” near the end of the set. While it seemed that would close it out, “Light Up or Leave Me Alone” blared out of the speakers and gave the crowd one more song to rock to before the encore.

Coming out and thanking the crowd, Warren asked if they could do one of the songs over again because he wasn’t happy with the take the band did during the set. Ever the perfectionist he and Mule nailed the second take on “(Sometimes I Feel So) Uninspired” that led right into a glorious “Dear Mr. Fantasy” that had every member on stage take a brief solo before Warren brought it all home with one more wonderful showcase of what he can do on the guitar. With a thank you and good night, the crowd left into the cold Albany night.

Photos

[Best_Wordpress_Gallery id=”399″ gal_title=”20161029 Govt Mule Albany Bryan Lasky”]

Videos (Captured by Sean Roche)

[Pearly Queen]

[Rock & Roll Stew]

[Forty Thousand Headmen]

[Glad]

[Empty Pages]

[Medicated Goo]

[Low Spark]

Setlist

Set One: World Boss > Mother Earth, Larger Than Life, Trane > Eternity’s Breath > St. Stephen Jam, Temporary Saint, Time To Confess

Set Two (w/ Steve Elson and Bobby Allende): Pearly Queen > Stranger To Himself, Rock & Roll Stew, Forty Thousand Headmen, Glad > Freedom Rider, Empty Pages, (Sometimes I Feel So) Uninspired, Medicated Goo, Shouldn’t Have Took More Than You Gave, Low Spark Of High-Heeled Boys, Light Up Or Leave Me Alone

Encore: (Sometimes I Feel So) Uninspired (Take 2) w/ Bobby Allende, Dear Mr. Fantasy w/ Allende and Steve Elson