Gov’t Mule: Bring on the Music: Live at the Capitol Theatre

“Bring on the Music,” the title-track from Gov’t Mule’s live double-LP, is part eulogy, part therapy session—a testament to the healing power of bathing in electric sound among a group of likeminded strangers. “Bring on the darkness,” growls singer/ guitarist Warren Haynes over a slow-burning hard-rock riff, second after mourning a friend. “Bring on the smoke and mirrors,” he pleads. “Spread a little love across the night.” Live at the Capitol Theatre is an attempt to do just that. The package, also documented on a DVD set, captures a pair of quintessentially sprawling shows at the Port Chester, N.Y. venue in April 2018. And the mood is celebratory, even when the career-spanning set recedes into darkness, like the simmering psychrock atmospheres of “Far Away,” a mind-altering expanse of wah-wah and tremolo from 2000’s Life Before Insanity . The darkest moments—as they often do with the Mule—caress the band’s sweet spot of heavy emotion and dizzying chops: “Mule,” a career highlight and fan-favorite from their self-titled 1995 debut, erupts with smoldering hard-funk bass riffs, rippling Hammond and a signature slide-guitar solo that dances on the edge of madness and soulfulness. As with any Mule concert, the variety is staggering, as they venture from surf-punk grooves (“Funny Little Tragedy,” which segues into The Police’s “Message In a Bottle”) to Southern R&B balladry (“The Man I Want to Be”) to spacey reggaeblues (“Time to Confess”). No live album could replicate the collective catharsis of their live show, but Bring on the Music comes close.