S.E.R.P.E.N.T Festival
The Venue, Lincoln
July 12, 2024
Photos by Paul Piazza
Slash and his traveling blues guitar road show called the S.E.R.P.E.N.T Festival recently played a show at the Venue in Lincoln. For this summer tour, the Guns ‘N’ Roses guitarist has assembled a rotating cast of some of the finest touring blues guitarists to join him as he showcases some of the best guitar talent in the U.S. in a show where he also explores his own roots identity.
S.E.R.P.E.N.T. is an acronym for Solidarity, Engagement, Restore, Peace, Equality N’ Tolerance. On this night, the special guests included Samantha Fish, Eric Gales and Warren Haynes. However the entire tour changes after every few dates, and further on down the line, guests who appear on other tour dates include Keb’ Mo, Larkin Poe, Christone “Kingfish” Ingram, ZZ Ward, Robert Randolph, and Jackie Venson.
That’s a who’s who of contemporary blues right there. And it’s on a rare traveling road show that is showcasing them all across the nation this summer.
When the show in Lincoln began, the format appeared straightforward, much like the blues. Each guitarist would get a short set and at some point during that set, there would be a killer collaboration between whoever was onstage and whomever walked on to join.
This started early on during the fourth song of Fish’s set. Fish had set the tone by coming out with a blazing version of “Bulletproof.” When Slash walked out, the pair launched into Fish’s powerful “Black Wind Howling,” with Fish’s band backing. There is a lengthy guitar solo in the tune, so Slash took the first half of it with Fish taking command for the latter part. Needless to say, the guitar fireworks were going off throughout this one and it was just a glimpse into what kind of special night it would be.
Later, during Warren Haynes set, Fish came out and joined him for an absolutely gorgeous “I’d Rather Go Blind.” This song was first popularized by the late great Etta James in 1967 and the pair split the vocal duties with the Warren Haynes Band backing. Fish took over and went full throttle in Etta James mode for the last half of the song and it was something to behold.
The extremely talented Haynes, for his part, had recently headlined the Venue with his band Gov’t Mule, a brilliantly rocking, southern blues jam band. On hand for this show were Gov’t Mule bassist Kevin Scott, along with the stalwart musicians Terrence Higgins on drums, saxophonist Greg Osby, and keyboardist Matt Slocum. That’s a sturdy lineup.
The quartet wrapped up the set with Haynes gorgeous composition “Soulshine,” a song he had written as a member of the Allman Brothers.
Eric Gales played a rip roaring set that reminded many in the Sacramento area crowd that he had first passed through the area as a sixteen year old, touring a major label record in a band with his brothers. Nowadays, Gales is 49 and going stronger than ever after a few career and personal speed bumps along the way. He opened the show with his engaging, crowd-exhorting style and then later came out and joined Slash during his set for a burner.
For the Gales duet with Slash, the pair started off with Jimi Hendrix’s “Stone Free,” which as they continued to jam, spiraled into “Third Stone from the Sun.” It was a scorcher indeed.
For his part, Slash covered a lot of revered blues territory during his set. He played songs by Robert Johnson – “Cross Road Blues,” Howlin’ Wolf – “Killing Floor,” and even a Peter Green era Fleetwood Mac cover of “Oh Well.” Appropriately he ended the night with Elmore James’ “Shake Your Money Maker.”
It was a great night for all the players and as the crowd exited into the warm Lincoln night, they could talk of nothing but the sheer amount of world class blues guitar talent they had just witnessed.
