Goose Show Review - 3/1/22 Washington, DC
On Tuesday, March 1st, 2022, Goose tore into Washington, DC and delivered one of the strongest shows of the year at the 9:30 Club.
Coming off the incredibly successful Goosemas VIII show at Mohegan Sun, crowd and band alike were ready to get down and party.
The venue was packed to the brim and absolutely bursting with energy when the band took the stage at around 8:30.
After a great cover of the traditional Liza Jane to open, the band kicked into the first massive jam of the night in Drive. While the first couple minutes of the jam felt like it was going to be a standard version, Rick and Peter drove the sound into a darker mode, layering textures and latching onto a repeating descending lick as the jam burst into the first massive peak of the night. As we’ve seen all tour, the dual-guitar attack of Goose is producing some absolutely phenomenal jams.
A run of Travelers, Doc Brown, and The Old Man’s Boat came next, keeping the energy up and showcasing Peter on both guitar and keyboards. Boat gave way to the debut of California Magic, a new bluesy Rick tune. The crowd absolutely went crazy for it, especially Peter’s awesome organ solo later in the song.
While the set easily could have ended there, Goose opted to stretch it out to the 90-minute mark with an incendiary Madhuvan. Another incredible dual-guitar jam, this one had Rick absolutely torching the venue, modulating up and down repeatedly, and building tension to the biggest peak of the night.
After a 30-minute setbreak, the band returned and opened the second set with Into the Myst. Despite stopping briefly mid-song to make sure a fan was okay (shoutout GrooveSafe!) and the lack of jam, this Myst was still awesome – containing an extended intro jam with Peter’s signature delayed-guitar riff and strong playing from Rick. The first cover of Stevie Wonder’s I Wish since 12/7/19 (or Greg Knight’s wedding) kept the crowd moving as Peter took the lead – first with an incredible Vintage Vibe solo (shoutout to that slight bit of distortion he has on it) and then on the clav as the dance party feel to the set continued.
Let’s talk about this Wysteria Lane that came next.
As the jam began, Peter’s floating synth loops added to the space vibe as Rick began leading the band into darker territory. Like its San Francisco counterpart from January, this Wysteria ended up in a drum-centric jam that we now know to be very Dripfield-like. Both Spuds and Jeff went absolutely nuts on their kits throughout and it even felt like they might segue into Dripfield at one point.
I was absolutely losing my MIND during this jam that seemed to stretch on forever and ever, a churning rhythm section with Rick’s screaming guitar leads pushing it higher and higher before landing extremely well in Your Ocean. I immediately #HastyRanked it as my favourite jam of the year, and time will tell if it holds up (side note: finally having attendance bias for Goose is awesome!).
One of Goose’s best second set ballad landing pads, Ocean featured another incredible Rick solo ahead of the band ripping into an insane Pancakes to close the set.
The band could have thrown down a hot 13-minute version and the set still would have been amazing but they opted to throw down another incendiary 20-minute jam. Highlighted once again by the dialed-in rhythm section (and sweet I Wish teases from Rick), the 9:30 Club celebrated National Pancake Day in style!
A laid-back Doobie Song encore closed the show on the high note as the capacity crowd of 1200 stood in disbelief of the magical night we had just witnessed.
Coming from Saturday’s massive arena show to this small venue, I was surprised at how easy the transition was. I found that Goose’s sound still has that arena rock quality to it even in a room a fraction of the size. Andrew Goedde’s light show was no less impressive in the smaller venue as he painted every corner of the room with wild colours and patterns and perfectly matched the tones of the lights to the music.
Goose continues to push boundaries in 2022 and we can only go up from here! See you for round two tonight!
Thank you to Peter and Naveed for the quick turnaround on the SBDs! Listen now on Nugs and Bandcamp!