Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10
Recorded over two special nights in April 2018, titans of the genre Gov’t Mule took to stage of New York’s Port Chester and proceeded to give what can only arguably be described as one of the most perfectly driven live performances captured; not for nothing do they Bring On The Music but they also extol the virtue of persistence, of the resolve to not play the game that the Government asks of all. Blind obedience is a terror, to be free is be the real you, on stage or travelling from city to city, bar to bar, all you can do is put a quarter in the machine and tell the suits and the suspicious minded to Bring On The Music and dance to your tune.
Bring On The Music- Live At The Capitol Theatre certainly sees the band at their very best, the sound laid down over the two nights is such that it is one of those moments in life where you wish you could have been there, to damn the rules of insistence and ties and just let yourself go as the Atlantic Ocean swirls around in time and as the control in which you live your life is slowly drained away.
A live album always suffers from expectations, it is meant to be a crowning glory, there is always the thought in some minds of manipulation, of making the experience sound better than those in attendance remember. It comes as no shock when that on many albums the boisterous crowd are often the gage mark of how the album is appreciated, too much though and it feels as if the band is playing second fiddle to belief, that the music is a backdrop for every person present to make themselves heard. Thankfully, or more than likely by superb design, what you hear on Bring On The Music- Live At The Capitol Theatre is the group, the reason for the mood and the roar, unadulterated, unsullied by the back drop and more importantly, as big and wonderfully brash as you could hope for.
The two C.D. set is not so much a run through of what makes Gov’t Mule such a respected act, it is a journey, a laying down of a golden path to which memories adhere and the mind is captivated by the inherent dopamine effect coursing through the body. Across songs and standards as Railroad Boy, Beautifully Broken, The Man I Want To Be, Sin’s A Good Man’s Brother, Dark Was The Night, Cold Was The Ground, the excellent Time To Confess, Revolution Come, Revolution Go, and the bookended Travelling Tune, Gov’t Mule take on the arena and leave, if possible, with a greater sense of respect and enjoyment had.
A live album that lives up to its demand and purpose, to make you want to be anywhere they are playing and with rebellion oozing out of you.
Gov’t Mule release Bring On The Music- Live At The Capitol Theatre on June 28th.
Ian D. Hall