Gov’t Mule Shine in Oakland With a Little Help From a Friend

It’s another rainy Saturday during a very wet winter in the Bay Area. Still, the latest atmospheric river has eased up just in time for music fans arriving at the Fox Theater in uptown Oakland on Saturday, 17 February. It’s an evening with Gov’t Mule, which means two sets of renowned guitarist Warren Haynes and company dishing out their bluesy rock power. It’s also the “30 Years Strong Tour” honoring Gov’t Mule’s 30th anniversary. But they have announced a curveball – drummer Matt Abts is out with an illness that will sideline him for several gigs. 

The music gods have provided, though, with Haynes announcing that his old pal John Molo will step in as a pinch hitter. This opens up an intriguing array of possibilities since Haynes and Molo have been rocking together off and on for nearly a quarter century as members of Phil Lesh & Friends. Lesh’s famed “Quintet” lineup with Haynes, Molo, Jimmy Herring, and Rob Barraco set the music world on fire right after the turn of the millennium, attacking Grateful Dead music with a renewed energy and aggressively jazzy approach that hadn’t been seen since the Dead’s peak era in the 1970s. 

Lesh’s Quintet rocked America for four years, from 2000-2003, before dissolving as the members went on to explore other pathways. But their chemistry was so sensational that they’ve continued to reunite on occasion over the years, with Lesh recently announcing another Quintet reunion for his upcoming 84th birthday run at the Capitol Theater in Portchester, New York, circa March 15. Molo joins Gov’t Mule well warmed up, having just played a hot gig with Phil Lesh & Friends for a Valentine’s Day fiesta at the Fillmore in San Francisco.

Fans are thus eager to witness this rare opportunity to see Molo in the drum seat for Gov’t Mule. Yet there’s also something of a strange vibe with this being a rare fully seated show at the Fox. The scenario recalls last June’s Mule show at the Saratoga Mountain Winery in the South Bay near San Jose, where a majority of attendees did sit although there was a bleacher section in the back for the dance crowd.

Gov’t Mule rode into last year’s summer tour with a strong new album in 2023’s Peace… Like a River, featuring one of the year’s most timely singles in “Dreaming Out Loud” (which received a stellar performance in Saratoga). In an era in which this insane society keeps sliding toward dystopian chaos, Haynes keeps flying the rock ‘n’ roll flag for peace and harmony as he sings lyrics like, “It’s time to rise above, You only need a heart full of grace, A soul generated by love, Forgive me, I’m dreaming out loud again.”

The Oakland show opens with another timely track from the new album, “After the Storm”, a bluesy number that hits the spot after driving over in a downpour but not getting soaked walking to the theater. New bassist Kevin Scott (since 2023) lays down a pulsing low end, while keyboardist Danny Louis digs into some vintage organ sounds as Haynes sings out for a savior before tearing up some hot bluesy riffage on his Gibson Les Paul. Gov’t Mule get funkier with Mule staple “I’m a Ram”, mixing a reggae groove with edgy blues. The set continues in a decidedly bluesy direction with “Wake Up Dead” from 2021’s Heavy Load Blues and the simmering “Captured” from 2013’s Shout, featuring a Neil Young & Crazy Horse kind of sound.

“Sco-Mule” spins the vibe in a groovier direction again, with Molo’s nimble percussion elevating the song for a big organ solo from Louis and Haynes tearing it up. “Banks of the Deep End” has some more of that Neil Young vibe, a Mule classic since serving as the title track of the 2001 tribute album Gov’t Mule recorded with a who’s who of the best bassists in the world after the untimely passing of original bassist Allen Woody. A Mule-ified cover of Howlin’ Wolf’s “I Asked for Water (She Gave Me Gasoline)” delivers another heavy blues jam, though it winds up feeling a bit anticlimactic when it concludes the first set.

It’s been a solid first set, and Gov’t Mule sound great here at the Fox, but the vibe feels a bit off due to the seating arrangement. For attendees who had some people standing in front of them while everyone behind them remained seated, there was an awkward feeling that made it challenging to really get into the spirit of the show. But a handful of intrepid fans are able to solve this dilemma by moving into the pit aisles, which remain unpoliced throughout the second set.

The second set is quite a contrast in the vibe as Gov’t Mule forgo the standard repertoire with what turns out to be a series of fan-favorite cover tunes that celebrate their influences, as well as Haynes’ heady history with John Molo in Phil Lesh & Friends. Haynes’ shimmering rendition of the Beatles’ “She Said She Said” lights a fuse to elevate the mood in a big way. Hearing Haynes sing the classic tune from 1966’s incalculably influential Revolver album also leads some local fans to flashback to the magical night of 30 June 2001 at the Berkeley Greek Theater, where the song also kicked off the second set of that night’s sensational Phil & Friends show.

Haynes doubles down here by jamming the song into another Beatles’ classic from Revolver with “Tomorrow Never Knows”, a song that’s been cited as launching the psychedelic rock revolution. Mule is conjuring that psychedelic magic now as Haynes uses his slide to create the soaring bird-like notes on the outro section with what turns out to be an instrumental jam on the timeless tune (also another from the Phil & Friends repertoire). The treats keep coming as the jam segues into the Dead’s “Fire on the Mountain”. A rainbow lighting scheme enhances the vibe further, recalling Grateful Dead ragers at the Oakland Coliseum in the 1990s. 

Bassist Kevin Scott has been playing a Rickenbacker bass with a pick here in the second set, and it really elevates the sound for a smoking “Fire on the Mountain” jam. Haynes takes the jam into a bluesier direction for a minute but then brings it back, with Molo continuing to propel the tribal beat with his dynamic skills as the band digs deep into the transcendent groove.

Scott switches over to what looks like a standard Fender bass that he plucks with his fingers for Tower of Power’s 1973 classic “What Is Hip”, another longtime Gov’t Mule staple. It’s been an appropriately groovy anthem for Haynes through the decades, as he defies varying trends in the music biz to keep on delivering kick-ass blues rock. “While you’re striving to find the right road, There’s one thing you should know: What’s hip today might become passé,” Haynes sings, delivering a deeper truth about why it’s better to follow one’s own muse than try to follow the pack. The crowd pleasers keep coming as the band moves into the simmering bluesy psychedelia of Traffic’s “Low Spark of High Heeled Boys”, another classic rock tune Haynes brought into the Phil & Friends repertoire. There’s a hot jam here, too, with Haynes blending slide guitar and wah-wah with stellar effect.

The set then soars above the clouds as Haynes leads Gov’t Mule into Temple of the Dog’s “Hunger Strike” for a glorious flashback to the golden age of grunge, which seems appropriate on a tour celebrating their 30th anniversary. It’s not a tune Haynes played with Lesh but rather a beloved anthem for the Gen-X crowd, of which there is a large contingent here at the Fox. The arrangement is in more of a Southern rock style, which makes for an interesting twist before the heavy crescendo at the end of the chorus section. The audience responds with great enthusiasm, as this is a tune that defies expectations (though Mule has been covering it on occasion for some years.)

It’s one of those special songs that can generate a spine-tingling effect since it’s been such a rarity (despite being a smash hit video on MTV in 1992). The duet with a heartfelt message between Chris Cornell and Eddie Vedder has long represented a peak moment for the alternative rock revolution, which altered the pop culture landscape in the early 1990s in a way that seems unlikely to occur again. When Haynes belts out, “I don’t mind stealin’ bread from the mouths of decadents, But I can’t feed on the powerless when my cup’s already overfilled,” you know he means it, and the lyrics feel as zeitgeisty as ever.

Then he leads a masterful turn-on-a-dime segue into “Dear Mr. Fantasy”, another Traffic tune that was a Grateful Dead staple in the 1980s for keyboardist Brent Mydland. It’s a brilliant combo since Mydland and Mother Love Bone singer Andrew Wood (for whom the Temple of the Dog album was written) both departed the Earth in untimely fashion after tragic overdoses on heroin – “Please don’t be sad, if it was a straight mind you had, We wouldn’t have known you all these years…” Haynes rips a smoking wah-wah solo, then flips the script again by going back into “Hunger Strike” for a sensational reprise to bring the house down. 

Where to go next after such a triumph? Into a dub-style version of Steve Miller’s “The Joker”, which hits the spot for a heady breather in a mellow space cowboy kind of way. Keyboardist Danny Louis steps out here for a trombone solo to lend a jazzy flavor to the easy-going groove as the set proceeds in flawless fashion toward its conclusion. Scott breaks out another cool-looking clear bass as he throws down what sounds like a Peter Gunn tease before the band rocks out on Tom Waits’ “Goin’ Out West” for a hard rocking finish.

An often obligatory “Soulshine” encore closes the night with Haynes’ blues ballad that became a big hit with the Allman Brothers Band, always a cathartic closer. This show has been anything but business as usual, though, with a second set of special treats that has sparkled from start to finish like a rare and precious gem. Neither rain nor heat nor gloom of illness stays the messengers of Gov’t Mule from the completion of their appointed rounds.