The Giant Panther

Last night Warren Haynes and Gov't Mule played The Orpheum Theatre here in Boston. I have seen Gov't Mule roughly ten times now, but I'd have to say I enjoyed last night's show as much as any of them. Like Phish, the Mule love to pay tribute to some of the bands they love when the holidays roll around. This is a really attractive trend for concert goers. We all knew there was something special in the works, but we didn't know what it was going to be. That in turn creates a selling opportunity for the band to the converted. I'm sure you have all come across the buy the concert you just saw on CD on the way out the door trend of the past couple of years. I haven't seen it lately, but I would imagine they haven't yet mastered the technology to the point that they can cut down on the wait after the show. Someone told me at the show last night that the concert we were about to witness will be available to the public in about two weeks. Sure enough, when I checked Gov't Mule's web site this morning a pop up advertisment confirmed it. To illustrate the potential for sales of live concerts I recently bought a copy of Holy Haunted House (thank you Carter Alan of WZLX fame for the tip) by Gov't Mule myself. It is a copy of the show they put on last Halloween in St Paul, MN. Their second set that night was basically a cover of every single song that appears on Led Zeppelin's House of The Holy. Since it'll be a cold day in hell before Led Zeppelin is bumped out of my top three bands of all time I was an easy mark here. In fact I'm listening to Gov't Mule's thirteen plus minute version of No Quarter as I type. Holy Haunted House is worth every penny I spent on this one track alone. I'm sharing it with you below. Enjoy. Now I have to save my pennies for a CD of a show I actually attended. Done and done. It's a pretty neat marketing trick.

Knowing I can usually score a great ticket with a little patience I rarely buy tickets for any event too far in advance. Between Craigslist and Ticketmaster releasing the tickets they sometimes have on hold for god knows who the day of the show, I'm usually in good shape by the time the show starts. Last night wasn't one of my better efforts. I ended up waiting about twenty five minutes in line for the box office to open hoping I would score unused band tickets. I wound up with the same fairly awful tickets I could have bought from Ticketmaster earlier that afternoon; right behind the mixing board about 40 rows from the stage. That never happens to me, but I was determined to get in no matter what because I knew they would play a set of covers. Why that fascinates me is odd I suppose, but I love covers; always have. To put this cavalier approach to ticket buying for this show in perspective last summer I wandered down to South Shore Music Circus in Cohasset, MA to see the Mule play a big top tent. This venue would be my favorite, even with the 45 minute drive, because it is tiny and intimate. The big drawback is that for reasons unknown they don't let you bring any beverages that you might purchase to your seat. That means, after selling you a super sized beer, they hang you out to dry by forcing you to consume it on the fly, in the heat, before entering the tent. They make sure you can't see in as well or everybody would just hang out outside because the vibe is so chill. The stage rotates so nobody is missing anything and aside from the post concert parking lot traffic jams the place is great. I always make one trip down there each summer no matter what. The reason I tell you this story though is because the Mule played there not five months ago before MAYBE 1500 people. I'm no crowd size expert, but the place was empty. I felt awful for a couple of reasons. One, because people have no clue what they are missing and two, because Gov't Mule may never play there again with that kind of turnout. I was embarrassed for the concert going public, but I had a blast. I socialized with a couple of Mule fans I figured I would never see again until I ran into one of them last night. That was kind of comical even though the Mule crowd is very loyal and seeing the same folks at each show is not unusual. They are a lot like the Allman Brothers concert going fans for obvious reasons. They do have Warren Haynes in common after all.

Back to the show; ever see those pictures in US Magazine (I read 'em at the gym for free...lighten up) where they say "Stars - They're Just Like US" as they show Jennifer Aniston picking out cereal or some such mundane task? That is what it feels like when Warren Haynes starts doing his Jimmy Page, or in last night's case David Gilmour, impression. It seems Warren Haynes has the same feelings about Pink Floyd that I do. That's pretty cool. I hear he's an extremely nice man, but this kind of makes me want to support him even more. I'm publishing the set list below, but the house was packed as the Mule lit into their second set last night. The first song was One of These Days from the 1971 Pink Floyd album Meddle. I figured this was the record they were going to play, but aside from a positively sublime version of Fearless, one of my favorite Pink Floyd songs, they didn't play any more from Meddle. They started skipping around. You can follow the set list below, but let me just tell you this was a great show and it's doubtful I could have enjoyed myself more. The whole audience sang like a church choir in unison throughout the whole Pink Floyd set. Happy Halloween indeed. Looks like I chose the treat again. Support Gov't Mule! P.S. Warm up act Back Door Slam was excellent. Blues fans should keep an eye on them.

First Set: Brighter Days, Bad Little Doggie, Brand New Angel, Game Face - Mountain Jam - Game Face, Trane - Third Stone From The Sun - Trane - Eternity's Breath Jam - Trane - St. Stephen, Monkey Hill, Child of The Earth, Kinder Bird Jam - Kind of Bird

Second Set: One Of These Days, Fearless, Pigs On The Wing Part 2, Shine On You Crazy Diamond, Have A Cigar, Speak To Me, Breathe, On The Run, Time, Money, Comfortably Numb, Shine On You Crazy Diamond Reprise, Wish You Were Here

Encore: A Million Miles From Yesterday, Blind Man In The Dark