Show Review - 6/19/25 Cleveland, OH
A Second Set Band
Goose tour continued back to the Midwest last night with their first of a two-night stand at Cleveland’s Jacobs Pavilion at Nautica. Marking yet another cool riverside venue on this summer tour, the band brought together another odd combination of an uneven first set with an improv-heavy and excellent second in what has been a trend lately.
Opening up with “Mas Que Nada,” the Sergio Mendes featured some great guitar play from Rick Mitarotonda in the song’s first-ever appearance in this slot before “Coach” Jon Lombardi joined the band on “Honeybee.”
The absolute highlight came next with a huge 24-minute “Torero,” Mitarotonda and multi-instrumentalist Peter Anspach’s duelling lead guitars dropping the band into the slinky groove of the early jam.
Twining around each other, the two guitarists riffed for a bit before Mitarotonda went into loop-land, leaving space for bassist Trevor Weekz to pulse in with some smooth melodic work. Digital sauce entered the fray amidst the swirling loops as the intensity rose, drummer Cotter Ellis continuing to push forward in his laid-back groove.
Anspach produced dense clouds of sound as Mitarotonda continued to probe around with his riffs, returning for a time to the “Torero” jam progression returning as the tension continued to mount. Escaping the ramp to re-entry, Mitarotonda kept the jam going as things quieted from the tense space, modulating into a major key as Anspach and Weekz both engaged in some funky riffs.
Ellis matched that vibe as the band came close to some “Atlas”-like riffs, eschewing the path to a bliss mode – for now – and continuing in the gritty funk. Mitarotonda threw in some pieces akin to “One In, One Out” as the energy rose once again, Weekz moving away from his solid groove-anchoring role into leadership, really pushing the improv to new heights before the band moved on to the next idea.
Calming into the major mode that had been hinted at earlier, Mitarotonda cued a new progression with some pretty phrasing, Weekz and Anspach following right behind. Building from there, Mitarotonda augmented his tone and began to play in a gorgeous anthemic mode, telegraphing a big peak that was sure to come.
Instead of going the expected route, the band made a hard left into some dissonant and churning play, the interplay reaching a new level as the tension reached a fever pitch before exploding back into “Torero” proper to conclude the first-set centrepiece.
“Hot Love & The Lazy Poet” and “Mr. Action” continued things with some solid play before a call for “The Labyrinth.” This song is often a controversial topic, because while some herald it as a compositional triumph and are big fans, it’s far from my favourite thing that can happen at a Goose show and last night felt as though the already-strange first set took a notch down with this call.
A long “Hot Tea” brought the frame to a close with a party jam built around Michael Jackson’s “Workin’ Day and Night” bass line, a tease that had popped up last week in St. Louis. The crowd really got into the show at this point, and the chomping finally quieted down for the party tune.
Returning for the second set, the band kicked into “Madhuvan,” an early indication that the weird setlist and energy from the first set would be nowhere to be found.
Beginning in the usual free space, droning guitar was punctuated by weird riffs by Weekz as Mitarotonda set up hypnotic reverse-delay clouds of sound. Getting further into the unease and darkness, some pick scratches doused in reverb shot across the open space before Anspach moved to keys and began to toy with some weird synth tones.
Weekz pulled a riff out of nowhere and Mitarotonda was right with him, Ellis bringing in a groove as Anspach continued to hang back on weird tones, eventually moving to piano. Mitarotonda built into a tense, minor-key zone as Ellis began playing in earnest, each of the four band members sitting perfectly in their role for this jam.
Anspach’s insistent piano offered a nice sonic contrast to the increasingly-heavy guitar and bass, the band continuing to ratchet up the tension and grit. Calming from there, spitting synth returned to the fray as Mitarotonda began to toy with a major theme, Weekz following him with some melodies as everything quieted into a contemplative space.
Exploring this zone for a little bit, Mitarotonda strongly cued an ebb-and-flow theme that coincidentally came on the four-year anniversary of the legendary Legend Valley “Madhuvan” that was dominated by a similar theme.
Each drop getting more and more of a reaction from the crowd, Goose ran through the alternating themes several times before settling back into the quieter mode. Moving from there, things got weirder and dissonant as Anspach and Weekz began to emphasize some tense riffs. Mitarotonda darted around both of them with his insistent playing and engaged in some communicative interplay. Ellis rolled through a tom-centric beat as the unease continued to mount.
The band hit upon an ascending progression from there as Ellis hit into double-time, the band building as one to a final blast back into “Madhuvan” proper as Anspach reintroduced a subtle synth pad for an extra layer of sonic goodness.
Eschewing the ending, Mitarotonda blew through several strong peaks (joined by INSANE Trevor fills) but then took things down and winding his way into the beginning of “Atlas Dogs,” using it in the launchpad role it’s comfortably fit in all summer as the band worked over to “Into the Myst.”
It was all bliss from here as Goose used Ellis’ pounding beat as a driving force behind an anthemic and beautiful jam, tapping into the frenzied energy that they had built up within “Madhuvan” and letting out a huge release over the 19-minute “Myst,” Mitarotonda showing off his incredible ability to weave an improvised melodic story out of thin air. Weekz, too, was right there at the front of the jam with amazing fills and riffs that would have seemed absolutely astounding from him less than a year ago – but his Summer 2025 level-up makes it so that this is just par for the course at this point.
There’s really nothing like the pure joy of a bliss peak after a big, exploratory jam – and Goose knew exactly that with the setlisting when they followed up the crowd’s massive cheers with “Hungersite,” unleashing the hose with full force to close the set – another notch in the belt of this song’s incredible prowess as a joyful set closer.
Encoring with the first “Doobie Song” since last September and the ending of “Madhuvan,” Goose sent the Shohio crowd home happy, any worries produced by the uneven first set firmly soothed by the incredible 70-minute second. With this being the final multi-night run of summer tour, I have high hopes that Goose will rise to the occasion – and location in SHOHIO – to deliver a phenomenal Friday night for us on a perfect-weather day.
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Tune in live this afternoon as we recap last night on Always Almost There Day After Show!