Goose Show Review - 5/8/21 The Caverns Above Ground Amphitheatre, Pelham, TN

This review was written as a companion to the Summer Tour 2021 Leg One write-up appearing in the El Goose Times Tour edition Volume 2.

The first leg of Goose’s 2021 summer tour ended with a two-night stand at the Caverns Above Ground Amphitheatre in Pelham, Tennessee. While the first set started off a little bit shakily with Travelers, Doc Brown, and the debut of Elizabeth’s new intro, the energy was still high as the band found its footing. Rick and Peter then brought out acoustic guitars for the first time at a Goose show for a rendition of Me and Julio Down By The Schoolyard featuring lighting director Andrew Goedde whistling for his 26th birthday. The band’s glee was palpable as they lit into the bouncy acoustic version of Turned Clouds next. After taking a moment for Peter to return to his keyboards, Rich started the intro to Rosewood Heart on his acoustic guitar. This phenomenal jam began with a strong showing from Peter as Rich transitioned from acoustic back to electric – the rhythmic-dense space being dominated by Jeff’s impeccable conga work. Ripping in with a hot melodic solo at the 8 minute mark, Rick made himself known quickly and kept the beautiful Type I jam going. Beginning to depart Rosewood proper at around 11:30, Spuds built a funky groove that the rest of the band picked up on immediately. The funk eventually transitioned to a classic Goose four-on-the-floor dance beat as the jam picked up steam, Peter sticking to classic piano as Jeff continued to texture with conga, tambourine, and shaker. While the rest of the band traversed very common themes for Goose, they still built a phenomenal peak – special emphasis on how dialed in Rick and Spuds are as every break or tension-building moment is picked up on by all on a dime. Post-peak, Rich led the band cleanly into the intro to Jive I, a typical version to close the set on a somewhat awkward note as they decided to save the Jive Lee for the second set opener. The Lee jam remained fairly standard until after the 8-minute mark when Rick added a grimy octave-down effect and Peter hit the synth and Vintage Vibe. As the jam got darker and darker, Rick seemingly pulled the ripcord to bring it back to Jive Lee proper, but it was anything but as the band slow-burn segued into Jive II. Webcasting at home, I jumped out of my seat with excitement at the first ever full performance of the “Jiveangle” in a single show. A typically great II jam followed, with Peter colouring the beginning of Rick’s solo BEAUTIFULLY on Vintage Vibe. This would be no ordinary Jive II, however – as the song reached its normal conclusion, Rick began picking out a new melody – the advent of the Jive II third jam! Starting with a slower version of the piano funk displayed earlier during the Rosewood jam, Goose modulated in the last few minutes to a two-chord bliss jam akin to the last section of the 10/2/20 Time to Flee. Wysteria Lane came next and offered a dose of grimy jamming and Rick and Peter’s first real extended foray into two-guitar jamming of the show. As the song spaced out at the end, Rick began strumming a very familiar four-chord progression, turning out to be the live debut of Ted Tapes all-star Moby! I still get goosebumps every time I hear the moment Trevor drops that first bass bomb – I, along with everyone in attendance at the show, was absolutely blown away by the band playing it live. Just out of sheer dreams, I had Moby as my 1-point Fantasy Goose pick for the whole tour up until that point and had even played it earlier in the day on May 8th with my family Phish cover band out of Mike’s Song (shameless plug :), check it out here!). The phenomenal instrumental served as the perfect late second-set breather, allowing for the audience to catch our breaths and sway to the deep groove. Shoutout to Jeff for his fantastic percussion during this jam and Peter for the always incredible Vintage Vibe. Some of Rick’s soloing during Moby actually reminded me a bit of the silent sea part of Phish’s Twenty Years Later – anyone else hear that? A blissful Empress of Organos jam closed the set out before an emotional 726 encore closed what may have been Goose’s best show to date! One night of the leg remained, no repeats had been played, and an embarrassment of riches had been delivered to us – the band was feeling good!!