MIRACULOUS MULE, SebrIght Arms, East London, May 2nd 2015 –

We’re in a basement room underneath a pub in East London, why aren’t this band much (much) bigger news than they are? Why this band aren’t far far bigger news is a mystery, it really doesn’t get much better than this.  Ask any of the people smiling great big shit eating grins at each other as the threesome stomp their way through a wired version of set closer Satisfied, it really doesn’t get much better than this. There’s electricity flowing around the room tonight, an outrageous chemistry arcing between the three of them and the rest of us, eyes fixed on drummer Ian Burns waiting for him to explode another one above our heads, brothers Michael J Sheehy and Patrick McCarthy standing together up front firing off each other.   London’s. Miraculous Mule are ending a European tour with a one-off date on home soil, they’re seriously rocking a big one tonight, it isn’t something that’s easy to explain, it isn’t something that can easily be pinned down on paper, the Mule are a band that seriously matter, a devout immersion in American roots music, an Irish catholic soul via their childhood estates of North London, music that has a direct line from the source, songs and riffs drenched in soul and as real as it can get. “I can die happy now” said the girl next to me, she isn’t being silly, it makes perfect sense that she should say that, this is what music really is about, this is that thing you can’t write about, this is that thing you can’t record, you can’t bottle it, this is that magic, this is that shared spiritual this, that special thing.  They’re a classic three-piece blues band, these kind of things can only be done via the alchemy of  three-piece rock ‘n roll bands, four is too many, two is not enough – a powerhouse drummer, a wired in bass player anchoring it, a guitar player doing just about the right amount of doing, a couple of voices to nail it for us all.  They’re steeped in it. This is something you can’t make up, you can’t fake it, you can’t make it up, you can’t just do it, it takes chemistry, it takes soul, it takes you with it.  You’ll get a clue from their recordings but to really get it you need to be there is the basement face to face with the three of them –  tonight is one of those nights, I’ve been to far too many gigs, thousands of gigs, this is one of those treasured ones, one of those very special ones, there’s only about a dozen of them – that Huge Baby gig with the beer crates and the candles, that time with Mint 400 back at the start over at the Sausage Machine, that time in the pond at the Astoria, Webcore at the Clarendon, and yes, that time Saint Silas Intercession played that basement in Islington back about ten years ago – Ah yes, Saint Silas Intercession, they had the magic then,  the three of them have taken it to a whole other refined yet still vitally raw level now – this isn’t some overnight thing, this has been brewing for years and years,. the hundred or so who made it out tonight, we’re privileged, we’re in a basement and were plugged right in to it, this is the raw rock n’ roll, this is wrong side of the tracks gospel, this is a classic three-piece electric blues band, the place is drenched with soul, the magic is in here, the river banks have burst, retribution has come, the raw riffs are running down the walls, we’ve been redeemed and I really don’t give a flying flip if you think this is hyperbole,  we were there, you probably weren’t – when you get that feeling its like lightening in your,,, Hey look, nights like this are why, this is why, it doesn’t need no explaining, it just is, this is music, you can’t speak it, you can’t write it down, you can’t touch it, you can’t really talk about it, you can just nod and smile with the others that were there in that basement with you, share that shit-eating grin and declare yourself ready to die happy.  .(SW)