Gov’t Mule Dusts Off Jimi Hendrix Cover In Oakland

Gov’t Mule‘s current tour continued on Saturday night at The Fox Theater in Oakland. The quartet’s visit to the Bay Area included a performance of a Jimi Hendrix Experience cover they hadn’t played in over five years.

Warren Haynes & Co. began their first of two sets in Oakland with frequent opener “Railroad Boy.” The band pulled from various eras of their career over the course of the frame including “Game Face” from 1998’s Dose, “Whisper In Your Soul” off 2013’s Shout! and “Tastes Like Wine” from 2000’s Life Before Insanity. Mule’s most recent album, Revolution Come … Revolution Go, was represented by “The Man I Want To Be.” Gov’t Mule brought the set to a close with Allman Brothers Band classics “Dreams” and “Soulshine.”

The biggest surprise of the night came at the beginning of the second set, when Gov’t Mule launched into “1983… (A Merman I Should Turn To Be).” The song from Jimi Hendrix Experience’s 1968 album Electric Ladyland was last performed by Mule way back on June 8, 2013 at the Mountain Jam festival. Saturday’s performance of “1983…” was just the third by the band as they also covered the tune at their 2012 Mule-O-Ween tribute to Hendrix. Multi-instrumentalist Danny Louis moved over to guitar from his usual position on keys for the rarity.

Gov’t Mule went on to fit a tease of the Hendrix cover into the “Mule” that followed. The rest of the second set was heavy on songs from Revolution Come … Revolution Go including “Thorns Of Life,” “Drawn That Way” and “Dreams & Songs.” Saturday’s show came to a conclusion with a “Bring On The Music” encore.

Watch fan-shot footage of Saturday’s “1983 (A Merman I Should Turn To Be)” captured by Rob Orme:

Setlist