Live review: Gov’t Mule, the Avett Brothers @ Red Rocks Amphitheatre
By Candace Horgan, Lisa Kennedy and Lisa Kennedy | September 8th, 2010 | 3 comments
Warren Haynes was in fine form Saturday night at Red Rocks. Photo by Joe McCabe, denverpost.com/reverb.
Mixing a superb blend of originals and covers, Warren Haynes and Gov’t Mule delivered the goods at Red Rocks on Saturday night. Haynes may not rank in the mainstream among the great guitar gods, but every time he rips through soaring, sustained solos on his cherry burst Les Paul, Haynes proves he’s got the goods to stand with any guitarist in rock today.
I’ve been seeing Mule for 12 years and know what to expect, though Saturday’s opener, the Avett Brothers, has never registered on my musical radar. I decided to go in with no pre-listening and no expectations, just to hear what they were capable of. Blending the high energy of raw punk with bluegrass, country, and Cajun music, the Avett Brothers dominated the stage at Red Rocks. Cellist Joe Kwon twirled and pounded on his instrument like it was a vintage-era guitar, Scott Avett shredded clawhammer banjo like he was Joe Strummer, and Seth Avett danced his rail-thin body around the stage while alternating between driving rhythms and melodic leads on his guitar.
View a full photo gallery of Saturday’s show!
The band changed musical styles seemingly at the drop of a hat. “Go to Sleep” sounded like a drunken shanty, while “January Wedding” displayed a melodic sensibility that would have fit in at home on the Planet Bluegrass stage at RockyGrass. The highlight of the set was a roaring “Head Full of Doubt/Road Full of Promise.”
Opening with soulful slide on a 12-string Les Paul during the Appalachian-tinged “Railroad Boy,” Haynes and the band displayed a tightness that doesn’t normally mesh well with jam-oriented rock. Drummer Matt Abts pounded out backing rhythms under Haynes’ riffing. On “Game Face,” bassist Jorgen Carlsson used a Bassballs effect on the intro riff so that his instrument sounded like it was underwater, and the band teased the Allman Brothers classic “Mountain Jam” in the middle.
Much of the first set was very bluesy and mellow. While Haynes’ guitar skills are always front and center, his vocal ability is often overshadowed. During the first set, he sang with heartbreaking intensity on “Child of the Earth” and “Towering Fool.”
Haynes stepped up the guitar work with some beautiful fingerpicking on “Patchwork Quilt,” written for the late Jerry Garcia, and slid effortlessly into a leering cover of Led Zeppelin’s “D’yer Mak’er” sandwiched in the middle of “Frozen Fear.”
“Welcome to the rock and roll portion of the show,” Haynes said by way of introducing the second set, which veered from searing and fiery leads on rock anthems to long, jazzy improvisation on extended instrumentals. The band found its groove early on “Inside Outside Woman Blues #3,” with Haynes using a wah pedal to build a long solo from a mellow intro to driving crescendo.
The band teased rock classics in the middle of songs effortlessly, sometimes so quickly that it passed before you could realize what they were playing. In the middle of “About to Rage,” they jammed on “Electric Funeral,” while the long instrumental “Sco-Mule,” with guitarist Eric Krasno sitting in, touched on “Oye Coma Va” and “Dance to the Music.” Krasno, Haynes, and keyboardist Danny Louis, having so much fun it seemed criminal, engaged in long call-and-response solos that were set by Louis, with the guitarists finally twining together into an explosive end.
The long drum solo by Abts did seem to stop the show in its tracks. However, they recovered on the blistering set-closing “Blind Man in the Dark.” On the encore, Haynes proudly showed his classic rock colors and with a nod to classic guitar heroes. They kicked off with “21st Century Schizoid Man,” with Haynes getting more depth and feel on his guitar than King Crimson’s Robert Fripp ever achieved. This segued into the Who’s “We’re Not Gonna Take It,” with the audience singing along joyfully.
The band wasn’t done yet, as Carlsson started in on the doom and gloom of “Dazed and Confused.” Haynes even reached into his bag of tricks to use the mic stand to mimic Jimmy Page’s violin bow solo, and also played the echo chord riff that occurs during the mountain climb sequence in the live version of “The Song Remains the Same” film.
View a full photo gallery of Saturday’s show!
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Candace Horgan is a Denver freelance writer/photographer and regular contributor to Reverb. When not writing and shooting, she plays guitar and violin in Denver band the defCATS.
Joe McCabe is a Denver photographer and a regular contributor to Reverb. Check out his website.
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