Show Review - Goose 6/28/25 New York, NY

Madison Square Goose

When I saw my first Goose show at Mohegan Sun Arena in February 2022, I walked out of there after a statement with the certain knowledge that they were an arena band – and that was in a relatively small one with just over 6,000 people in attendance.

Last night, I attended my 125^th Goose show at a completely sold-out Madison Square Garden, marking their biggest show to date and a serious milestone as they more than reaffirmed their status at the arena level. Laying down their longest show to date, the quartet played an hour past the 11:30 curfew as a huge thanks to all the fans who traveled in from far and wide to celebrate this monumental occasion.

Filing into the Garden pre-show, I was immediately struck by the spectacle of Goose headlining the room – seeing people filling the arena from the floor to the very top of the 200s and Chase Bridge was surreal. When the lights dropped, a staggeringly loud chant of “GOOOOOOSE” rang out as the band took the stage, each of them sporting ear-to-ear smiles as they picked up their instruments.

Making a statement right away, the band opted for a “Factory Fiction” opener, letting us all know that this wouldn’t just be any big show. A song that has meant a lot since the early days of the band, “Factory” has emerged in 2025 as a reliable jam vehicle, breaking out of its set-closer shell to anchor sets at Fiddler’s Green and All Good Now.

Goose dove headlong into the jam last night, no time needed to warm up – a heavy and psychedelic groove developed with some sputtering OB-6 synthesizer work from Peter Anspach as guitarist Rick Mitarotonda went in on some dark riffs. Modulating up into a major key, the band kept the floaty vibe up atop drummer Cotter Ellis’ slow pocket, Mitarotonda continuing to use a dirty tone for the more upbeat riffs.

Pure euphoria was reached as the band seemed to release some pent-up nervous energy at the peak of the jam, feeling as though the jitters were gone as they tore into “Hungersite” next.

Soaring through the song’s anthemic guitar solo, Mitarotonda confidently led the way into the jam, working some delayed wah riffs over the rolling groove laid down by Ellis and Weekz. Anspach let loose on clav as “Hungersite” does what it does best – build an absolutely ferocious sustained peak.

Ellis didn’t just drive straight ahead, his slightly staggered beat showing off his crisp snare sound as the occasional fill matched Mitarotonda’s riffs as the guitarist eventually flipped from rhythm to lead work, boiling over into an all-out explosion of energy as the jam came to its close atop some power chords.

“My Mind Has Been Consumed By Media” gave Ellis a turn on the mic and kept the energy going before our first cooldown in “A Western Sun.” Once again, I was struck by the sheer spectacle of the number of Goose fans in the building as the opening chords to “AWS” were quickly met with an audible cheer from the crowd.

Embarking on a relatively short jam, the quartet patiently built in the now-typical rocking mode that they tend to hit within “This Old Sea” and “AWS” jams, Ellis leading the way once again with some fantastic ride cymbal work as Anspach and Mitarotonda engaged in some melodic interplay.

Cooling off, Goose executed a flawless segue into the summer’s third “Running Up That Hill,” an amazing choice for the first cover at MSG as Ellis’ pounding drums echoed from the ceilings. It’s a well-documented fact that if enough people are dancing hard, the building moves – and that happened for a lot of last night’s show, just another really surreal thing to be experiencing at a Goose show.

Speaking of surreal and a true gift in terms of appreciating the spectacle of last night, “Give It Time” saw arms raised, voices belting the lyrics, and more absolutely incredible energy coming from both the crowd and band. From the first couple of versions, this song was destined to be a huge singalong and that’s exactly what happened inside MSG last night. Pure joy.

At close to 70 minutes, the first set could have (and probably normally would have) ended there, but Goose had no plans to do so as they welcomed special guests Stuart Bogie, Dave Nelson, and Andrew McGovern to the stage for a trio of Everything Must Go cuts, performed live for the first time with their studio horn accompaniments.

“Feel It Now” came off the bench for the first time in just short of a month, having been conspicuously absent since Bend – and Bogie tore the song a new one with his vicious saxophone solo over the jam. Mitarotonda looked absolutely ecstatic as “Dustin Hoffman” kicked off, the uplifting horn stabs from the album really elevating the already-incredible live impact of this song.

The first set came to a close with a horn-augmented “Animal,” but the real star of this version aside from the special guests was the way that the band approached the jam. It’s not too far out of the ordinary, but the way that the band built the dynamics from near-silence to a gorgeous peak while working in perfect tandem with the crowd was amazing. Nearly 110 minutes later, the band walked off stage for setbreak – little did we know that we weren’t even halfway through the amount of music that was coming.

Walking around the MSG concourse at setbreak is one of my favourite things to do at shows there, and I was once again struck by how many people were just giving off a vibe of pure joy and excitement for the second set to come.

Returning to the stage with “Thatch,” the crowd roared in response to the vicious opening riff and the band responded by delivering an excellent 20-minute rendition, moving from digital sauce funk to an extended major-key segment built around a familiar melodic idea (see 3/10/22 “Rockdale” and 4/1/23 “Madhuvan”). This is the kind of jam that just flows so naturally off the stage and gets the whole crowd absolutely locked in on the music – the perfect way to kick off the second set.

“Red Bird” continued the run of EMG tunes with the night’s standout jam, Mitarotonda leading things decisively into a blazing hot funk groove, riding his wah pedal as Weekz dug into Ellis’ pocket.

Smoothly transitioning from the first peak into a more minimalist zone, Ellis dropped things down into a quieter zone as Mitarotonda and Anspach went heavy on their respective delays, circling their own riffs as Ellis tapped out a snare-rim beat.

Anspach went to a percussive marimba sound as the jam ebbed and flowed, really showing off the band’s dynamic work in such a large room. Lighting designer Andrew Goedde threw up his thick light curtain as the band got darker, Ellis pushing the tempo as the band went down the rabbit hole further, spiraling sounds bringing in more and more evil.

Locking into a tense descending progression, Mitarotonda took the lead as Anspach infused his marimba with a phaser, adding a dark anthemic quality to the jam as the band found their way smoothly into the opening of “Don’t Leave Me This Way.”

Debuted at Goosemas in December, this Harold Melvin & The Blue Notes cover absolutely brings the house down every time it’s played, and watching the floor go nuts for every chorus from my vantage point in the seats was awesome – not to mention the whole building moving again.

The big thing missing from the show to this point – at least for summer 2025 – was some Goontz – and that was on deck with “Tumble.” Each rendition of the electronic-inspired style has been better than the last over the past few weeks, and last night is probably my favourite of the bunch.

Not only did we get the all-out dance party and rolling disco builds thanks to Ellis, but Anspach’s absolutely FILTHY rhythm guitar work underneath Mitarotonda’s insistent digital sauce leads gave the latter part of the jam a seriously menacing tone that elevated it beyond the usual Goontz motif.

As the 11:30 curfew drew nearer, Goose mellowed out the peak and kept the disco vibe rolling right into “Creatures,” and I began to suspect that they had plans to go past the deadline as they didn’t seem to be in any hurry. Indeed, as the band dropped into crowd-favourite “Shama Lama Ding Dong,” Anspach announced that they were past curfew and were “just going to keep going,” which got a huge cheer in response.

The cover choices last night were absolutely on point for audience participation, and there was yet another big singalong before the band tore back into the ending of “Tumble,” cultivating a high-speed jam akin to a “Madhuvan” while also hinting at the outro of “SOS” for a bit.

I wasn’t expecting the curfew extension to be a full hour and thought the band would end the set there, but was pleasantly surprised when they started up “Jed Stone,” performed as Goose for the second time and acting as a PERFECT cool-down after the intense energy of the last segment.

As I mentioned at the beginning of this write-up, 2/26/22 made it known that Goose was an arena-ready band, and that was cemented with the debut of “Dripfield,” a colossal song that felt like their first composition written for the big rooms.

Almost three and a half years later, “Drip” was the easy choice to close the second set at the band’s MSG debut and brought the house down with its always-ferocious energy, Mitarotonda blowing past several cues for the ending in favour of one more turn around the form, one more screaming peak to take them off stage after a TWO-HOUR set.

Returning for the encore, Anspach expressed his immense gratitude one more time for all of us being there before welcoming the horns back onstage for “Arcadia.” This was especially cool because unlike the songs played earlier in the show, there was no prior arrangement to have horns on “Arc.”

While last night may have been Goose’s first time headlining the World’s Most Famous Arena, it most certainly will not be their last – the meteoric rise that has been going on since late 2019 is showing no signs of slowing down. I keep thinking about the word “surreal” in regards to last night, but it doesn’t really begin to cover the feeling of seeing Goose at MSG, let alone a fully sold-out one.

This band just keeps getting bigger and better, and I feel immense gratitude to have been along for the ride over the past five years – from small clubs and theatres to arenas, Goose continues to build on the music they’ve played before to innovate and blow minds in different ways nightly.

The Everything Must Go Summer Tour comes to a close tonight with a celebratory show in the band’s home town of New Haven, CT – with the MSG nerves out of the way and some time off right around the corner, it’s sure to be a perfect conclusion to the past month of touring.

Watch live from Westville Music Bowl tonight exclusively with a nugs All Access subscription.

Watch live as we recap the show on Always Almost There this afternoon!