It’s not very often that I get to
see a free concert, and especially one that features a band I have followed for
years and would gladly pay money to see.
That is why, when Nik mentioned to me that Govt. Mule was coming to the
Rochester Jazz Fest, and it was a free concert, I jumped at the
opportunity. Knowing that my father is a
fan of the band as well I asked him to come along as he missed the Mule concert
that I attended in 2006. Before the show, which
started at nine in the evening, we decided to head to Sticky Lips, a local Rochester barbecue joint.
There are two Sticky Lips locations
in Rochester ,
and you owe it to yourself to get there and get there today. I have had barbecue in many places, and in
many highly touted barbecue restaurants and this is by far the best I have ever had. Even the critically acclaimed
Dinosaur Barbecue cannot hold a candle to the quality on the Sticky Lips
plate. The atmosphere is great as well
and the appeal was only heightened with our being ushered to the upstairs
open-air patio. If you are going to eat
barbecue, it should be a rule that you have to eat it out in the sunshine.
The drinks that they served were
adequate. I got a glass of their Sangria
(as I cannot drink beer) which was decent but not as strong as I would have
liked. My father got a Golden Monkey
beer which he enjoyed quite a bit (he and Nik share a love for craft brews) and
even with its higher alcohol content, it proved to be a solid accompaniment to
the meal.
Ah, the meal.
First of all, if it is your first time at Sticky Lips, let me warn you,
their menu is huge. I am generally
turned off by restaurants with huge menus as it automatically makes me think
that they do a bunch of things adequately but nothing well. Not only is this not the case for Sticky
Lips, but they also provide what can only be described as “sample platters” of
their mouthwatering barbecue. All are
reasonably priced and come with two sides (get the cheddar chorizo grits) and a
slice of cornbread (some of the best I have ever had) along with your meat
selection. Each plate has a different
selection of meat so, for instance if pulled pork is not your thing, you can
get the plate that has the chicken, etc. etc.
This makes for a well rounded and downright unforgettable dining
experience, especially for first-timers that have yet experienced what the
restaurant has to offer.
I cannot recommend a restaurant any
higher than this. Once you try it you
will definitely be planning your return visit.
After we finished our meal we made
it over to the concert area, which involved parking relatively far away and
walking quite a few blocks. Though Rochester is a fairly
large city and everything seemed to be concentrated within the few blocks that
housed multiple stages and vendor stands, it never seemed overly crowded until
we actually got to the stage that Govt. Mule was playing on (over by the
Appellate Division courthouse for those keeping score at home).
This concert affirmed two things
for me. 1) If you like jam bands in the
vein of the Allman Brothers Band, Govt. Mule is possibly one of the best live
bands you can see, and 2) most people are douchebags.
Let me expand upon point number one
first. I realize that this music is not
for everyone, Nik and Raven left about halfway through, which is actually
longer than I anticipated that they would stay.
Each song is at least six to seven minutes long with a section in the
middle where Warren Haynes just goes nuts on his guitar. I love that, some other people, not so
much. The best part of the night though
was their 25 minute rendition of their hit Mule
that featured bits of George Thoroughgood’s Who
do you love and Led Zepplin’s Whole Lotta Love among other bits and
pieces. The crowd went nuts at the
inclusion of a Zepplin tune and with good reason. The whole song was seamless from one note to
the next regardless of the different songs and artists that they
incorporated. I would suggest going out
of your way to see a Govt. Mule show if you enjoy exemplary guitar work and
probably the tightest group of musicians that I have ever seen. They are currently on tour in Europe , but you don’t have to wait for them to come back
to hear some live Mule. They have
multiple concert albums out as well as the tapes from many of their shows. Just head over to www.mule.net and click on the mule tracks tab
to start downloading. Hell, you can even
download Saturdays concert already to see for yourself.
Now on to point number two.
I know that people suck in general, and that the higher concentration of
people that you have, the more suck that you are going to get. That being said, a good portion of the people
at the Govt. Mule show, whether they were drunk or high or had sun poisoning
from being outside all day just plain sucked.
A lot of the individuals were enjoying the music and minding their own
business, but as is bound to happen when a show is general admission, there
were a few bad apples that mixed in. By
mixing in, I do mean that they got a little too close for comfort with their
dancing (yup, I’m looking at you frat boy to my right that couldn’t help but
yell to all your buddies about how you got a new guitar while practically
grinding against me), their stupid conversations (really guy behind me, you
choose now to tell your buddy about something you saw on the second season of Louie that you just watched on
Netflix? Go fuck yourself), or their
cuddling (that’s right guy in front that just stepped in front of me with his
girlfriend, apologized, but stayed there anyway and decided to nuzzle her neck
and grab her ass the rest of the night).
This is just the people around me, mind you. This did not even take into account the guy a
few rows ahead of us that was probably old enough to be my father, who was
drink a mysterious bright green liquid out of a gallon milk jug (seriously,
this shit was the same color as the ooze in the Ninja Turtle movies, while throwing up various hand signals and
(I’m assuming) trying to high-five the don’t walk sign across the street as he
kept throwing his hand up in that direction.
Luckily I do not get out much, for this very reason, and I
therefore do not have to worry about dealing with these people. Luckily the concert was good enough that it
out-weighed the negative experience of the people around me.
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