Gov’t Mule’s Annual Beacon New Year's Eve Show Will Make it 1971 All Over Again

Ever since 2002, Gov’t Mule has rung in the new year by setting up shop on December 30 and 31 at the Beacon Theatre. Rather than these shows being evenings packed with the usual instrumental and vocal tours de force concert-goers expect from the Mule, attendees instead experience specially curated theme shows. Given the wide swath of musical influences that flow through this outfit, founded by Warren Haynes back in 1994, these particular gigs have been rather wide-ranging over the years.

Among the more memorable shows were Dub Side of the Mule, where a reggae-packed set was sung by Toots Hibbert of Toots and the Maytals, and featured special guests Gregg Allman and John Popper of Blues Traveler. Other years saw Haynes and company cobble together a set dubbed Watkins Glen, inspired by the famed 1973 rock festival co-headlined by the Allman Brothers Band, the Grateful Dead, and the Band. The Mule paid homage that particular year by playing full sets from each of that historic event’s trio of performing acts. Inspiration for these annual residency shows at the Beacon were inspired by similar gigs Haynes saw his peers pulling off.

“Some of our other friends in the jam-band scene were doing similar things, where they would do something fun for Halloween, and we kind of thought it would be fun to carry over to New Year’s as well,” he explained. “Those are the two shows out of the year that give us license to do something crazy and thematic like this.”

As much a music fan as he is an elite musician, Haynes’ approach to these shows finds him trying to outdo himself each time December rolls around. One year, an R&B theme led to a replica of a late-‘60s/early-‘70s television show being constructed onstage for the band to perform a set of vintage soul. Last year, the theme was dubbed Black and Blue. Musical choices were influenced by song titles, album titles, or bands featuring either the words “black” or “blue.” In Haynes’ words, “It went all over the place.” This year’s theme will honor the music of 1971, a particularly seminal 12 months Haynes felt needed to get its due.

“That year was arguably the greatest period in history for rock music if you look at the amazing amount of fantastic records that came out that year,” Haynes said with awe. “It’s pretty incredible. We’re going to be doing our normal thematic second set—with this year’s theme being 1971, we’ll be playing all songs from that year for the second set.”

He added, “Some of the amazing records that came out that year are Who’s Next, Led Zeppelin IV, the Rolling Stones’ Sticky Fingers, the Allman Brothers Live at Fillmore East. There is some amazing stuff that we already covered through the years. I noticed from looking at our archives that we’ve covered over 20 songs from the past already, but the majority of what we’re going to be doing is stuff we’ve never played before. For the three days—the December 28 Schenectady show and both Beacon shows—every cover we do will be from 1971.”

Preparation for these particular shows involves a significant amount of rehearsing, starting about a month in advance, during which tunes are learned while still leaving plenty of room for interpretation. Older shows from both Halloween and New Year’s Eve, dating back to 2004, are archived and can be found by visiting mule.net and clicking on the Mule Tracks tab. A number of them have also been officially released in physical form.

“The Halloween show from 2008, where we did Pink Floyd for the first time, turned into the live record we called Dark Side of the Mule,” he said. “It wasn’t the album but select Pink Floyd songs; but that’s how we referred to it. Halloween in Philadelphia, one year we did all Stones jams, and that was Stoned Side of the Mule. I think the first one of these to come out was the Halloween show from St. Paul, MN, where we did Led Zeppelin’s Houses of the Holy and put it out as an album called Holy Haunted House.”

Suffice it to say, it’s been a rich experience for the North Carolina native during this ride he calls Gov’t Mule.

“There have been some really great [significant theme shows] over time, like the one year we did 90 minutes of Doors music with Robby Krieger as a guest,” Haynes said. “But they’ve all been great in their own way.”

Gov’t Mule will be appearing on December 30 and 31 at the Beacon Theatre, 74th Street & Broadway. Visit beacontheatre.com for more information or call 866-858-0008. Visit mule.net and click on the Mule Tracks tab to visit the archive of live Gov’t Mule shows.