MULE in Montreal

Friday afternoon I headed east to see Gov't Mule at Le National on Ste Catherine's Street in Montreal. This show was promising to be a heavy dose of Mule. No opening act. Two and a half hours of Warren Haynes' smoking voice and rocking guitar. Needless to say, the evening surpassed even my high expectations.



Warren Haynes... Now if all you do is listen to the radio and watch American Idol you may not know this man. However if you've ever bothered to step out into the real world and flick off your mainstream pop swill you'd know that Warren is not just a man but he is a machine.

In 2003 Rolling Stone magazine placed Warren 23rd on the 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time list. There's no doubt that he's moved up since then.



He's been the driving force behind The Allman Brothers Band since 1989 and he's toured and performed with a list of bands a mile long. Warren is the same guy who steps from stage to stage to stage jammin' with numerous bands at the weekend music festivals before pickin' up a full set with either Gov't Mule, Allman Brothers, Phil Lesh, or his own solo act. Hours of pickin', sometimes as many as 7 or 8 in a single day. That folks, is unheard of. Nowadays you're lucky to get a straight 45 minute set from a band. What is up with that anyway?



Anyhow, this evening was awesome. Warren rolled through one song to the next and as per usual he slipped in several teases and of course a couple of full length covers. "Smokestack Lightning" (Howlin' Wolf) was a driving force leading to an inevitable train wreck. I'm sure the Wolf was howling in his grave.

In the middle of the first set Warren proved his guitar-god status with a 12 minute instrumental version of Bob Marley's "Lively Up Yourself". The crowd chanted the lyrics and Haynes sang them through his guitar. Sweet.

Warren's "Lola" (Kinks) tease got the crowd singing before he faded off into "Lola Leave Your Light On". In hindsight, the Lola tease was likely a little humor on Warren's part as Le National Theatre is located at the heart of "Le Village Gai" (the gay district for those of you that don't speak French). But that's another story...

"Living Loving Maid (She's Just A Woman)" was a pump for the recently announced Led Zeppelin reunion concert scheduled for November 26 at the O2 Arena in London.

In the second set Warren paid tribute to Canada's Gordie Johnson with his rendition of "I'm a Ram" (by Al Green but more familiar to us Canadians thanks to Gordie's Big Sugar) and it was kickin' to say the least.




Last but not least, Matt Abts the drummer and fellow founding member of Gov't Mule raised the roof with an amazing drum solo in the second set. As far as drummers go this guy is at the top of the heap. Sporting nearly as many tattoos as Tommy Lee, Matt took control of the crowd for 10 minutes while he threw down a flurry of sticks complete with cowbell.

Nuff said. Download the bootleg here:
Gov't Mule - 2007-09-14 - Le Nationale - Montreal, QC

Set I: Brand New Angel Mr. High & Mighty Lay Your Burden Down-> Smokestack Lightning-> Lay Your Burden Down Reprise Banks Of The Deep End Lively Up Yourself A Million Miles From Yesterday Lola Leave Your Light On Livin' Lovin' Maid Mr. Man

Set 2: Like Flies I'm A Ram-> Love Me Do-> I'm A Ram No Celebration Drums Fallen Down-> Gimme Shelter Tease The Other One Jam Temporary Saint Mule Soulshine

Montreal Tour

Early last week I booked a night at a hotel through the online site, hotwire.com. It's an interesting website that offers discount hotels, flights, and car rentals. Basically you select your destination ( i.e. Montreal - downtown) and your dates of travel, then hotwire will give you a list of locations and prices to pick from. Using this information you make the purchase. THEN they send you a confirmation email with all the details - confirmation number, hotel name, address, and contact information. The catch? No refunds. Although for the price we paid that can hardly be considered a catch.

So we managed to scoop a one night stay at a 4-star hotel for less than half the price. The deal was even sweeter than that considering that it was May 2-4 weekend and there was a 2 night minimum stay for the rest of you chimps.




Saturday we hit Montreal hard, checking out the Biodome, the Botanical Garden, and the Insectarium all before 2. Then we headed over to the hotel for some hot-tubbing and a swim in the pool.




After that we watched history as the Sens beat the Sabres and made into the Stanley Cup Finals. Go SENS go! Ok, I'm not exactly a diehard but I do strongly support our Canadian teams.

After the whoops and cheers died down we headed out for a stroll down Ste Catherine St. in search of a family friendly restaurant. We finally settled on a pizza joint overlooking Phillips Square and Christ Church Cathedral. No complaints here. For dessert we hit a Second Cup for a Chillatte and some chocolate chunk cookies. Yummy but freakin' expensive.



The next day was spent strolling the streets of Old Montreal and the Old Port (check out the live webcam). It was a little cool in the wind but the sun was still shining and the good times were still rolling.




After checking out the Notre-Dame de Montreal Basilica (yes folks, this is where Celine Dion was married to her manager/husband aka "grand-papa" in 1994) we made our way back up to Ste-Catherine in time for lunch. Our stomachs were growling so we basically hit the first restaurant that looked like it had something on the menu for the whole family. Reuben's Restaurant & Deli. Food was okay fine but I couldn't help but feel that it was quantity over quality.

Bellies full we waddled back outside to check out the shopping in Montreal's Underground City. Wow! This place is huge... well, technically it's the largest underground complex in the world. So if your heading down there and your sense of cave dwelling navigation is a little off I suggest taking this map.

A fine start to a long weekend.


We'll be back, Montreal!