Goose tour continued west last night with a stop just outside Salt Lake City at a wild venue called The Great Saltair. Originally slated for The Plaza at America First Field (a literal parking lot), the location was switched on Monday due to inclement weather – a move that ended up working in both the band and audience’s favour.
One of the best things about this switch was the removal of the 10pm curfew at the Plaza, keeping the nice and early 6:30 showtime with the ability to play as long as they wanted, meaning the band was able to deliver the longest second set of tour so far.
The show opened with “Draconian Meter Maid,” drummer Cotter Ellis fronting the band and opening things up into some early improv. Sticking to a major-key space, multi-instrumentalist Peter Anspach and guitarist Rick Mitarotonda engaged in some great interplay, keeping things relatively mellow. Mitarotonda’s recent tendency to show more restraint in jams rather than go full guitar rock god 100% of the time has led to a new level of collective play – focusing on cultivating a melody or riff alongside his bandmates rather than forcibly lead the way.
It was clear that we were in for an MVP performance from bassist Trevor Weekz at the outset as well as he made runs up and down the neck while the “Draconian” jam picked up steam. A nice slide into some tension-filled minor-key jamming saw the band poke their heads outside the box for a bit before bringing the opener to a natural ending – 13 minutes of great improv.
“Mr. Action” saw Mitarotonda flip the switch to rock god, hosing down the crowd with some incredible fretboard fireworks before Goose tapped “Time to Flee” to keep the momentum going.
Breaking from the typical jam almost immediately thanks to Ellis’ shuffling beat and Anspach’s poignant electric piano work, the quintet locked in on a blues-rock motif for the song’s duration. Far from your typical 13-minute “Flee,” the band headed in an almost Allman Brothers-like groovy zone for a bit before Weekz led the way into a new progression. Mitarotonda picked up the reins from there and confidently blazed his way through several peaks before bringing the song home. With two very solid 13-minute excursions in the first three songs, the band was sounding great and things were looking very good for the rest of the show.
“Inside Out” was up next and saw Mitarotonda put his MuTron envelope filter through a serious workout on the Spoon cover, interacting with Anspach’s sharp clavinet playing as he drove to a sustained peak section.
The band cooled down with a gorgeous rendition of “Your Ocean” – the first of this tour – before percussionist Jeff Arevalo got a turn at the mic for “Rock the Casbah.” This cover crushes every time it’s played and every audience loves to sing along – especially one like last night where it seemed that a lot of people were seeing Goose for the first time.
In hindsight, it was incredibly obvious that “Zalt” was going to appear last night, but I figured based on its recent appearance at The Salt Shed that they might keep it in their pocket for Montana. Fortunately, this song absolutely crushes every single time and the band opted to make the “Zaltair” the best version yet.
Contrasting with the previous few versions where the jam started off in a blazing hot Type I zone and stayed there, last night’s quickly demonstrated it was going to jam as Mitarotonda started off with sparse rhythm work instead of strong leads. Anspach introduced a low synth drone courtesy of his Moog Muse as Ellis pushed the pace, Weekz playing more aggressively than normal as we achieved liftoff.
Mitarotonda added a subtle helping of digital sauce to his tone, dancing around Anspach’s equally-sparse piano playing and following the keyboards into a dissonant and dark space. Weekz picked up on the tonal shift almost immediately and locked in with Ellis on some riffs, Mitarotonda pivoting his playing into some fast runs that took shape into a “Crazy Train” tease.
Anspach and Mitarotonda chased each other down some descending licks, keeping things low while the rhythm section forged ahead, Ellis introducing a new stop/start motif to build tension and then hang back for a couple of bars. “Crazy Train” came back, this time with Anspach on board, before the band began to break above the waves for a gorgeous hose section.
Mitarotonda introduced a familiar three-chord progression (think Buffalo “Arcadia”) as Ellis refused to let a drop of momentum get lost, plunging headlong into the soaring jam with Weekz and Anspach in tow.
The hose just opened up from there, every person in the room locking in with the band over the course of several minutes of incredible peaking, the kind of thing that just evokes a feeling of pure euphoria.
A nice foray back into dissonance with a tension-build seemed ready to explode back into “Zalt” proper, but a hiccup and missed cue saw Mitarotonda capitalize on the opportunity to bring them around for one more build, adding in a “Secret Agent Man” tease for good measure as the band erupted back into the ending of “Zalt” to close the set with a bang.
Sticking to their recent trend of exactly 30-minute setbreaks, the band re-emerged (“moon is tight”) with “Madhuvan,” decisively heading into a breathtaking major-key space as soon as the jam began. Anspach utilized some incredible twinkling effects on Vintage Vibe before standing up and building into the jam on guitar.
With a distinct flavour of “Lead the Way” in the progression, the gorgeous bliss jam took shape around the amazing bedrock of guitar laid down by Anspach, giving Mitarotonda the room to blow through melody after melody, bringing the energy in the room to a fever pitch. Coming down from the peak, Ellis, began to pulsate into a four-on-the-floor beat as the band initiated a seamless segue into “Into the Myst.” While I personally would have liked to see them explore more spaces within the “Madhuvan” jam, this power-hour of music that kicked off last night’s second set has absolutely impeccable flow, with the band executing every single segue with smooth ease.
The “Myst” jam found its way into familiar territory via Ellis’ pounding toms, Mitarotonda gradually finding the same progression from June’s Raleigh “Pancakes” and Portland “Wysteria,” only this time he fully committed to the “When The Saints Go Marching In” tease – getting a big reaction from the crowd as he picked out the melody.
Anspach stuck to subtle tones as they built in this space, mellow OB-6 giving way to more insistent Vintage Vibe work as the band soared through the second picture-perfect bliss jam in as many songs.
Moving into “Can’t Get You Out Of My Head” next, the second crowd-favourite cover of the night saw a singalong that led into a good Type I dancey jam before the band slid perfectly into “Echo of a Rose.”
My personal favourite jam of the set, this jam is a perfect example of the democratic improv that’s been so prevalent on this tour, as Goose kicked off in a twinkling space as Mitarotonda, Anspach, and Weekz all seemed to musically chase each other for a spell before Ellis kicked things into a more propulsive gear.
This was Weekz’ moment, and he stepped out with some heavy phrasing as the rest of the band coalesced into a single groove, each member serving part of the collective musical brain.
Anspach brought in a small wave of synth, swelling the volume as the jam continued to pick up steam, Mitarotonda’s rhythm work continuing to give bass and keys more space
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While the jam kept one foot in the sound of “Echo,” the band pushed and prodded at the seams of the space as everything continued to build upward, ideas being thrown around from all musicians on stage. Hitting the peak as one, Goose demonstrated perfectly what all their recent hard work and practice has paid off with, reaching a level of interconnectedness that has never been seen by this band in the past.
“Spirit of the Dark Horse” saw its first outing of the tour next, staying inside the box but giving us the rare treat of its presence before the band ripped directly into “Thatch.” While appearing on a relatively short rest, I figured that the band would want to play it in Utah because of the massive Bonner version from last fall – and they delivered a perfect concise set-closing version.
A rhythm section-centric groove developed with heavy reverbed-out clav from Anspach as Mitarotonda utilized his wah pedal for some unique tones, leaving it on about half-sweep and vamping.
Anspach went full mad scientist with synth tones, doubling with the nasty undertones of clav for some darkness as Arevalo went ham on percussion. Mitarotonda found a familiar-sounding riff that he built upon for a bit before smashing back into “Thatch” proper, bringing the set to a close on a high note.
The band delivered an excellent exclamation point to the evening with the “Butter Rum” -> “Madhuvan” encore, tying up the unfinished version from the second set nicely as the Utah crowd was sent off into the night happy.
Never miss a Montana Goose show, goes the old adage…and with two nights at the idyllic Kettlehouse coming up tomorrow and Friday, they are sure to be hot ones with the level the band is playing at right now. Tune in to livestreams of all the shows with a nugs subscription.