[Editor's note: this is a partial transcript from an Instant Message conversation I had with "Stumpy."]

Stumpy: [Gov't] Mule is playing 10/31 in boston wanna go?

Kyle: nah

Stumpy: oh wait thats halloween, damn it. I cant go
Stumpy: they’re in Burlington VT thurs 10.30

Kyle: I like Mule, but I can’t listen to them for two hours at a time

Stumpy: oh come on

Kyle: I can’t. I haven’t been able to for years.

Stumpy: why not?

Kyle: Dunno. I want to say it’s because their songs sound the same, but that’s not fair, because they don’t.
Kyle: I find myself having the same issue with Widespread Panic and String Cheese Incident
Kyle: I like them…a lot…but only in small bites

Stumpy: growing out of Jam bands are you

Kyle: not really…because I’d say Do Make Say Think is a jam band, just not from the same range of influences as the others
Kyle: I think Phish spoiled it for their whole generation of jam bands, by which I mean, they became too influential, to the point where their peers started copying them
Kyle: Phish fell into the same hole. They started copying themselves. That’s why they broke up.

Stumpy: i can see that…
Stumpy: but I dont see Govt Mule as a jam band though
Stumpy: do you?

Kyle: I see Mule as a jam band, but they obviously come more from the Allmans than they do from the Grateful Dead
Kyle: That’s why I can still be blown away by them (Widespread hasn’t blown me away in years), but I can’t listen to them for two hours
Kyle: Maybe it’s because I saw a lot more Allman Bros. shows than I did Dead shows.