Don and I went to see Gov't Mule over at the Orpheum last night. We had excellent seats, 7th row from the stage on the left hand side. We basically were 15 feet from Warren the whole night.
It was a great show overall. I actually wore earplugs (I think it was the first time I did it for a whole show) due to two facts. First off, I was right next to the speakers and second, I am going to see Pork Tornado tonight over at the The Paradise Rock Club and wanted to actually be able to hear the show. Wearing the lugs killed some of the highs, but overall, it still sounded pretty good.
Some highlights of the show included:
- Karl Denson joining in on 2 songs before his gig up at the Paradise
- When the Doves Cry played around one of the songs
- Being at the tour opener!
The only real letdown of the night was the fact that Jason Newsted, who Don swore was going to be playing some of the set never came out. I was really hoping to see him.
I definitely enjoy the two different bassists. I liked that they were very different players. The first guy was blues and rock bass player. Very good player, hit all his notes, but didn't seem to have a ton of groove in him. The second bass player was much more of a funk and jazz player. Grooved right along with the songs. Both had lightening fast fingers too, probably the second guy more than the first.
Warren sounded real nice all night. I forget how awesome a voice he has until I see him live. I always think of him more as a great guitar player, but he can really sing excellently as well. He did seem to have some equipment problems over the course of the evening, but nothing all that major. And hell, it was the tour opener, it expected.
Matt sounded great on drums. Nice little solos at some points. He's just a solid drummer as far as I could tell. Nothing all that fancy, but definitely kept the pace going.
The keyboard player didn't really shine all that much in my eyes. First off, I could not hear him for a lot of the songs because of the ear plugs and second, he seemed to wander too much on his solos. I dunno, maybe it was just me.
Again, great show overall. Much thanks to Don for the ticket which was 1/2 of my birthday present (the other is the show tonight!). Hopefully I will get and post the set list at some point laster today.
