Show Review - Goose 11/7/24 Pittsburgh, PA

Maniac Zone

Goose fall tour resumed last night in Pittsburgh, where the band showed that there was no momentum lost on their travels up from Florida. While the show lacked a marquee-level jam, the band put together two great sets both in flow and execution, and kept the momentum up throughout the whole show.

The night began with a typical pairing of “The Whales” and “Mr. Action,” the Petersen Events Center filling in very nicely despite some worries about low ticket sales in the days leading up to the show. The one-two punch of reliable openers featured some atypical intros, “Whales” eschewing its usual haze intro in favour of jumping right into the propulsive drumbeat and guitarist Rick Mitarotonda taking a slightly different approach to the “Mr. Action” opening chord changes.

Wasting no time, Mitarotonda transitioned into a patient “Interlude II,” beginning an incredible segment that rounded out with “Jive I” and “Jive Lee.” The introduction of the interludes into shows this year has been an excellent setlist development, though I hope we haven’t seen the last of I and III.

“Lee” gave us our first experimental jamming of the night, kicking off minimalist-style with bassist Trevor Weekz at the forefront. Drummer Cotter Ellis and percussionist Jeff Arevalo went heavy on accents and cowbell as opposed to a more typical charging beat, giving the rest of the band ample space to open up early.

Multi-instrumentalist Peter Anspach went full mad scientist, moving between Moog Muse and OB-6 synths to build textures, using his new sequencer to set an arpeggiated tone to power the jam further. Anchoring to piano with the computery sounds still going, Anspach leaned into chordal vamping underneath Mitarotonda’s probing leads, sticking in Type 1.5 territory as Ellis got more insistent with his beat.

Sticking to this charging zone, the arpeggiator gradually faded into the background as the band locked in together underneath Mitarotonda’s smooth melodies, picking up intensity gradually with the feeling of a boulder rolling down a hill, gaining more and more momentum with each passing second. “Jive Lee” has had its best year ever in 2024, and the band’s willingness to explore within the 100%-improvisational song has been great.

Anspach’s recent keyboard playing has featured a lot of hypnotic and repeating riffs to help the band stay in lockstep, and his marimba piano playing during this sustained peak section carries a lot more musical weight than its repetitive and relative simplicity would imply.

Smashing through a glorious peak, the ending of “Lee” gave way to the first “Not Alone” since September 17, 2023 – one of the most criminally underplayed Goose original songs that I was absolutely ecstatic to hear make its return last night. It was the perfect cooldown between the frenzied “Lee” jam and the 80s dance party medley that was to come – hopefully the band doesn’t leave it on the shelf for another 90 shows before playing it again.

The first cover to make a second appearance after its Halloween debut came next with “Maniac,” and Goose made a really cool creative decision to sandwich “Danger Zone” within. As both carry a very similar vibe and are in the same key, the 13-minute segment of music worked as an amazing energy boost that carried through the blistering set-closing “So Ready.” I endlessly applaud Goose for taking risks and coming up with ideas like the “Maniac Zone” and hope this inspires them to play with setlisting in other ways.

While I have been a big critic of the placement of “Travelers” > “Elmeg the Wise” this fall and last night’s was in the less-than-ideal spot of mid-second set, upon relisten I enjoyed the big “Madhuvan” sandwich more than I did initially in person. As we all know, I am a big chaser of jams, so when the set began with “Madhuvan” I had big hopes and expectations.

The jam began with a near-total deconstruction, the band floating in a limbo-like space for a minute, each member poking around with some ideas, Mitarotonda modulating things into a major key. Anspach came in with a soft OB-6 pad, infusing Vintage Vibe into the space as well as things coalesced into a slow, dreamlike space. In absolutely no hurry, the band built upon this “Morning Dew”-like vibe for a couple minutes, amping up the energy to an absolutely glorious peak. While the guitar was at the forefront, Anspach’s multi-layered textural approach on synth and electric piano made this astounding musical idea all the better. THIS is the payoff of 2024 Goose – sheer beauty with all five musicians working together perfectly.

Coming down from the peak, things seemed as though we were going to continue exploring for a brief minute with laserlike synth shots, but the band opted to pull things into the beginning of “Travelers” instead. This rendition of the Autumn Crossing suite stands as my favourite of the three from the fall, and the band wrapping it all up nicely with a breakneck “Madhuvan” ending was just the cherry on top.

From there, the show was straight dance party as we got “Creatures” into “Animal” to end the set – while this duo may look musically unimpressive on paper, the segue between the two songs was absolutely flawless.

A quick romp through “SALT” for the encore sent the Pittsburgh crowd off into the night happy, as the band began their final weekend of this year’s proper touring season with an excellent show. We head to Showhio and Cincinnati tonight for the first of three shows at the Andrew J Brady Music Center, a familiar venue and vibe for Goose that will no doubt result in some big jams and unforgettable moments as they continue to ride the wave of this excellent tour. Livestreams of every remaining night of tour are available via nugs.net.