Celebrating a milestone: Find out when Gov't Mule is set to play Kiva Auditorium in ABQ

It’s a few hours until soundcheck in Seattle and Warren Haynes is ready for another night on tour.

The vocalist for Gov’t Mule is enjoying the band’s latest tour which is marking some milestones.

The tour is celebrating the band’s 30th year in the music industry. Gov’t Mule also released the full-length “Peace … Like A River” and the EP, “Time of the Signs,” in 2023. The tour makes a stop at Kiva Auditorium on Wednesday, Feb. 21.

“We see that milestone and we’re grateful that we’re still doing this all this time,” he says. “We want to make each show different. There’s so much new material now. The shows are really long and we take a break in the middle. It’s a three-hour show. Over the course of the night, we try to cover as many different aspects of our career as possible.”

Gov’t Mule started its journey in 1994.

Haynes says the band always stayed in its own lane and didn’t adhere to what was popular.

He credits the fans to keeping the band going and gaining new ground over the years.

“Hard to believe it’s been 30 years and Gov’t Mule is playing with a newfound energy,” he says. “Thanks, in part, to our new bass player, Kevin Scott, who is doing a fantastic job.”

Haynes and Scott are joined by Matt Abts and Danny Louis in the band.

Material for the band’s latest music was written during the pandemic lockdown in 2020 and into early 2021.

Haynes says the material was split into two projects, each one is related but can stand on its own.

“This EP, aptly titled ‘Time Of The Signs,’ is made up of four additional songs that were written and recorded during the sessions for ‘Peace … Like A River,’ ” says Haynes. “But these four songs seemed to belong together in the same way that the original 12 on the album belong together, so we decided to make a companion piece. The EP also includes a different version of ‘The River Only Flows One Way,’ which could have gone either way (no pun intended).”

With a catalog of music that spans 30 years, Haynes and the band have developed a set list that works for this tour.

Prior to heading on tour, the band learned more than 100 songs to perform.

“The songs will all be switched out over the course of the 13 shows,” he says. “It will be rare where we perform one single more than once. We never know what we’re going to play. That’s a way for us to keep the entire tour fresh.”

Gov’t Mule wanted to make the set list change because of the fans who attend more than one show.

“It’s also nice to dust off some of the older, deeper cuts to the albums,” he says. “We want to match the audience with what we’re playing. We’ve had to rework some of the songs to take a different slant.”

Music has been a big part of Haynes’ life and he feels like his love for the stage has evolved.

“It’s also basically the same,” he explains. “I feel the same excitement that I had when I was a kid. I don’t take it for granted. A lot of bands don’t have this opportunity to still perform after 30 years. The type of music that we do has hovered outside of mainstream. We’ve never depended on airplay to promote ourselves. Our audience has grown and diversified over time and it’s not lost on us.”