Goose Tour Recap - Winter 2025
El Goose Times Volume 13
Originally published in the Summer 2025 edition of the El Goose Times.
The evolution of Goose’s jamming since Cotter joined the band has been an incredible thing to watch, and was only bolstered by the stage plot shift during the 2024 fall tour, which enabled every member to have a clearer monitor mix and better communication during shows.
The 2025 touring season kicked off with an eight-date, three-city run across the Midwest and the band’s first Canadian shows, all in smaller indoor venues that cultivated a special and intimate vibe – especially with marquee shows like Madison Square Garden on the horizon this summer.
It very quickly became apparent that something special was happening on stage, and Goose completely redefined expectations of what a show can look like over the course of the tour, flipping standard setlisting on its head along with new and inventive jamming styles and some of the most mind-blowing music we’ve heard from this band yet.
This is Goose on a mission.
Beginning in Milwaukee, the first night boasted a ten-year bustout of Grant Green staple “Flood in Franklin Park” alongside an expansive “Drive” in the first frame, Peter kicking off the return to two-guitar dominance that had not been seen in such a large concentration since the hallowed Winter 2022 tour.
In the second set, the band pulled out two absolutely flawless segues from “Creatures” into “Atlas Dogs” and then into “Animal,” the “Dogs” getting a serious jam workout by way of a raucous “Tarantella Napoletana” segment that Rick is so fond of. Normally, seeing “Atlas Dogs” and “Animal” as the middle of a second frame would cause some skepticism on the strength of the set, but the point of Winter 2025 is expectation subversion – breaking free of its mold for just the second big version to date, “Animal” featured an absolutely gorgeous bliss jam drenched in emotive soloing from Mitarotonda ahead of easily the strongest “Arcadia” since 2021.
The first night was just an appetizer. Breaking “Atlas” wide open in 2/7’s first set, Peter and Trevor led the charge into a breathtaking and patient psychedelic zone with Rick infusing elements of “One In, One Out” to the space – and that’s all before the 20-minute ragefest of an “Empress” in an unconventional placement for the song.
Now let’s talk about Cotter. A year into joining the band, he has continued to push the other members and has become such a leader in the improv, demonstrated even more on this tour with the quartet formation. Stepping up in such a big way on such a consistent basis is not easy, and it’s clear at this point why he has been a perfect fit for the direction Goose is headed.
With the opening notes of “Madhuvan” to start the second set, the band delivered a show-stopping version complete with a dastardly and evil metal-ish section developed by the rhythm section, Peter shearing off sheets of sound on his guitar through the massive rendition. Contrast that with the soaring major-key “Red Bird,” and you have one hell of a one-two punch – even before the perfectly-placed “True Love Waits” and “Jeff Engborg” -> “Empress” to close things out.
Things continued on an upward trajectory with the first-ever “Into the Myst” show opener alongside an exercise in psychedelic patience within “Everything Must Go,” Peter especially shining on synthesizer and textural clav work, utilizing his full arsenal to push Rick in new directions and through several fresh ideas.
More expectation subversion happened in the second set with the first true Type II versions of “Fish in the Sea” and “SOS,” the latter going full triumph for its extended foray, returning home to wrap up ahead of a classic Driptych performance. With its normal tendency to lean into high-octane shred, “Hungersite” went in the complete opposite direction in Milwaukee with some serious 6/30/24 “Rockdale” vibes – an extended stay in the weird and dissonant but with control, a seat-of-your-pants-out-of-control rollercoaster ride that will have you equal parts exhilarated and terrified by the end.
Everything Must Go lead single “Give it Time” brings the weekend to a close with hands in the air, joy at an all-time high, and sights set on Toronto.
Goose’s first trip north of the border produced two very solid shows to a crowd of 2,500, the vast majority of whom had either never seen the band or had only attended one or two shows in the past.
Everyone I spoke to after the shows was more than 100% sold, raving about every aspect of the two nights with an eagerness that saw plans being made for summer tour.
2/10’s “Earthling or Alien?” was Canada’s first big jam with some Pink Floyd-esque atmospheric work thanks to reverbed-out clav and guitar loops, Rick eventually driving things to a heavy envelope-filtered peak before the band welcomed local musician Bahamas to the stage for a fantastic cover of his “Trick To Happy.”
Cotter absolutely dominated the second set-opening “Pancakes” with some punishing play, getting the huge 25-minute jam in before some radio-length versions of “All I Need” and “Wysteria Lane” packed in several minutes of gritty, dark jamming that would return in earnest for Grand Rapids.
On 2/11, a blistering “Arcadia” served up more incredible psychedelia along with an adventurous “Rosewood Heart” that delved into a pounding, almost calypso-like jam led by Cotter.
With a successful northern migration under their belts, Goose returned Stateside with a blizzard, getting into snowy Grand Rapids with three incredible shows that just further cemented Winter 2025’s status as a special tour.
2/13 saw Rick utilize his reverse-delay loops to create beds of sonic texture, especially shining in the first set’s “Time to Flee,” going unfinished and in a wildly different direction than normal to kick off an impeccable segment of music through “Atlas Dogs,” “Inside Out,” and “Moby,” all connected by seamless segues.
The second standout “Everything Must Go” of the tour boiled over into an impressively mature tension-build courtesy of Rick and Peter’s interplay, leading into a blissed-out “Arrow” reminiscent of the 12/13/24 “Hungersite.”
Planned setlisting went further out the window as the band made an on-a-whim call for “Mississippi Half Step,” opening into a two-guitar jam that felt unlike your average bliss jam in an impressive number of ways.
Valentine’s Day went all over the map, bringing together the maturity in jamming with a gorgeous and spacey “One In, One Out,” a balls-to-the-walls “Ghostbusters”-infused “Drive” to open the show, and EASILY one of the finest second sets Goose has ever laid down.
Audibles galore beginning with the first-ever second set-opening “Dripfield,” the band uncorked a molten hot jam that sustained a wild peak into a calm and patient space, eventually resolving into the most exploratory “This Old Sea” since 2022.
“Sea” traversed through a relatively standard rocking zone with impeccable drumming from Cotter before giving way to a raging disco party combo of “Creatures” and “Don’t Leave Me This Way” to round out the set.
When the “Hot Tea” encore started, it could have easily been your standard party version, but the band instead detoured into several minutes of unhinged Westville “Rockdale”-like dissonance to close the show – a rare occurrence of a jamming highlight in the encore!
The final night of tour was perhaps the payoff to all that came before, beginning with a pairing of “Give it Time” into “(dawn),” the latter getting into a beautiful and extended major-key space to demonstrate that whether performed as the full “SOS” or not, it’s a jam vehicle now.
In the ensuing “Echo of a Rose,” the band packed an insane amount of improv into ten minutes, taking us on a wild ride through dissonant themes as Goedde unleashed some of his wildest work with the curtain we’ve ever seen.
Closing the set was yet another massive version of “Big Modern!,” further cementing this song as an essential part of the Goose catalog as it seems to pick up more steam with almost every performance.
For the final set of tour, the band went all-out, kicking off with an extensive “Thatch” during which Peter summoned the sound of an ocean wave. Rick channeled beautiful and pure emotion in a compact “Pancakes” jam, leading the band through a tear-jerking peak. “Hungersite” ripped through before the band rocked “Tumble” into a thunderous “Sinnerman” to close, the band leaving 20 Monroe in ruins due to the power of the ending jam.
The final encore arrived – and after a tender “726,” Goose embarked on one of the wildest performances of “Madhuvan” to date, the dual-guitar attack building on the version from Milwaukee through breakneck section after breakneck section. Cotter shone once again on this final jam, leading the rest of the band through bass breaks and an unhinged return to the song proper, punctuated by an exuberant Peter “woo!” as things came home.
Winter Tour 2025 will long be remembered as a pivotal tour for Goose, a return to quartet form and a leap forward in full-band improv that built on the paths they had begun to blaze in late 2024. Let’s see what happens this summer – I have a feeling things are going to be even stronger by the time we get to the Garden…