Reviews > Shows

Gov’t Mule, Queen Elizabeth Theatre, Toronto, ON, 10/27/09

Photo by Eric Weinthal

“A storm’s about to rage,” Warren Haynes passionately informed a near sell-out Toronto crowd Tuesday night. One of the current American guitar giants and no stranger to the road, Haynes is undoubtedly in his element in front of an audience. With a healthy smattering of Allman Brothers’ devotees and younger neo-hippies filling the friendly Queen Elizabeth Theatre, Gov’t Mule settled in for two sets of its signature soulful Southern blues-rock.

The band (Haynes, founding drummer Matt Abts, keyboardist Danny Louis, and recent hire Jorgen Carlsson on bass) eased its way into a brief instrumental intro, disguising the “Blind Man in the Dark” opener right up to the first recognizable hint of the song’s melody. While the Mule can always been depended on for searing moments of honky-tonk bravado, the opening three numbers of the show, and much of the new material, would showcase its high-octane side even more than usual. The band’s seventh studio effort, By A Thread, released that very day, features Haynes’ version of rip roaring Texas blues and a whole lot of righteous riffs. While the powerful singer’s more withdrawn side occasionally emerged, this night was indeed ruled by the rage.

The end of set one saw a bevy of teases during exploratory versions of “Trane” and “Eternity’s Breath,” the latter culminating in a magnificent “St. Stephen” jam that had the tie-dyed set dancing with glee. “Thorazine Shuffle,” a classic Mule staple, closed the first set with authority. The musicians’ interplay was on full display during this hot version, with Abts and Carlsson both stepping to the forefront. This beginning would be hard to top after intermission.

The new material the band is clearly pushing on its current tour is not bad, but the fresh numbers featured in the second set proved to be less than thrilling. Abts’ ubiquitous solo, often a high point of the live Mule experience, also lacked its once dependable exhilaration. The players retained their consummate tightness throughout, but it seemed as though the truly brilliant instances of mutual triumph were behind them for the evening.

Canadian born Gordie Johnson, Haynes’ longtime pal and By A Thread producer, appeared amidst considerable applause for the encore. With dueling slide guitars, the two old friends cherished their licks through a choice cover of Howlin’ Wolf’s “Smokestack Lightning,” before digging into the Johnson penned “I’m A Ram,” one of his biggest hits with the now defunct Big Sugar. The smiles on the faces of the departing throng confirmed that this was the perfect cap to a night that had suffered a minor lag in energy during second set.