Show Review - Goose 2/15/25 Grand Rapids, MI
That's A Wrap...For Now
Sorry for the late post on this - travel delays and changed flights resulted in a crazy couple of days…but the silver lining was having the immense treat of a Cotter appearance on Sunday’s Day After Show episode thanks to the band being stuck in Grand Rapids as well!
Goose closed out their first tour of 2025 last night with yet another absolutely insane show, flipping all predictions and expectations on their head for the finale of the eight-show run and cementing its already-guaranteed status as one of the best tours in the band’s history.
If a “Give It Time” opener wasn’t auspicious enough on its own, the reaction from the crowd at the first chords of Everything Must Go’s lead single must have immediately made the band feel like they made the right call with the placement – the song had only appeared as the final song in its previous first-set appearances.
The final note of drummer Cotter Ellis’ powerful outro to the song leapt directly into the opening of “(dawn),” a complete surprise that upped the energy in the room even more. Multi-instrumentalist Peter Anspach utilized a subtle arpeggiator within the song proper that had not been seen in this spot before, adding another cool layer to the disco dance party which eventually gave way to the typically-glorious outro jam.
After “SOS” got the jam treatment for the first time at the tour-opening Milwaukee run, many were curious if it would happen again – and much to my delight, relatively brief solos from Anspach and guitarist Mitarotonda saw the band cool off into a low-key groove that signalled an extended jam.
Anspach hit the piano as Ellis kept up a steady pace, bassist Trevor Weekz poking through with some slap work as the improv began. Sticking relatively close to home in terms of feel, we were treated to a 17-minute excursion of joy and elation – on brand for the usual outro but with the extra sauce and gravity that comes with being in open improvisational waters as opposed to a straight-up guitar solo.
Blazing through a final peak, the energy of the first set was kept up with “Echo of a Rose,” which saw the band go right off the deep end once again into exploratory territory. Mitarotonda employed some Mu-Tron tones in the early part as Anspach blew through an incendiary piano solo reminiscent of the 6/15/21 “Empress” before things took a turn for the weird.
Weekz dialled in a subtle envelope filter of his own as Ellis leaned into the cowbell, but the real star of this jam was lighting director Andrew Goedde, who went absolutely insane with the front-of-stage curtain, obscuring the band behind wild patterns and eliciting several awed cheers from the crowd.
Getting into some territory not unlike an early-70s Grateful Dead jam (complete with the angular and probing wah guitar leads that were a hallmark of that era), the jam disintegrated into madness before long – and after a brief spell of dissonance that could have signalled the intro to “Dr. Darkness,” Mitarotonda kicked into “Jive II.”
The five-song second set wrapped with an absolutely massive “Big Modern!,” getting the crowd amped with the heavy headbanging section before embarking on a brisk jam.
Anspach began with some bright Vintage Vibe work, inspiring Mitarotonda to dial up some dreamier tones initially as the two musicians locked in with Ellis on a descending lick.
Making the switch to some cool delayed piano, Anspach led the way into a couple minutes of low-key Type I play before Mitarotonda drove Ellis into a tempo increase with some sharper rhythm work.
Pretty much the whole band dropped down to a minimalist zone from there with Ellis tapping out a motif on ride cymbal as Anspach went to OB-6 for a seriously menacing drone.
From there Mitarotonda switched to busy riffs as Anspach doubled a propulsive lick on clav and piano, Ellis continuing to gradually pour on more tempo on bit by bit, subtly upping the energy.
Weeks found a progression underneath the rest of the band as Mitarotonda and Anspach’s melodies twined and got busier before breaking into a staggering and powerful peak to close out the first set.
Perhaps the only real predictable setlist call of the night was the “Thatch” to open the second set, and Goose basically went with a victory lap vibe in the jam – not really deviating from Type I space but working a motif akin to “Use Me” or “You Enjoy Myself” to build peak after peak after peak as the packed crowd yelled in delight. This is what happens when the band knows that pure energy is demanded for the second set, and both the song calls and improv for the next hour reflected this.
“Pancakes” was tapped next, opening with a sampled ocean wave from Anspach’s Moog Muse. While its short runtime may seem like not a lot happens, this jam is one of the most purely emotive Mitarotonda solos I have ever heard, and I was moved to tears by the sheer beauty of every note and phrase while the rest of the band supported him with nonstop raging energy as they blasted through peak after peak.
Cooling off, the band executed a beautiful segue into “Spirit of the Dark Horse” before ripping through a gorgeous and incendiary “Hungersite,” continuing where the “Pancakes” left off but leaned more into the guitar-shred-god side of playing rather than emotional. At this point in the show, I figured the time for deep jams was over and Goose was opting to close the tour with a blazing hot show as a thank you for an incredible run – something I was totally okay with given what had happened the previous two nights.
“Tumble” was tapped next and acted as a launchpad for the segue into “Sinnerman,” though there were some arpeggiator issues from Anspach’s side that prevented it from being as flawless as planned. All mishaps were quickly forgotten, however, as the Nina Simone absolutely torched the room for a heavy dance party as it is wont to do.
After Friday’s show concluded with one of the best “Hot Tea” jams in the band’s history, it was foolish to think they might give us anything less for the tour closer as they returned for a beautiful “726” that was the only ballad or cooldown song of the entire show.
I personally expected a hot “Empress” to close out the night, as was fitting with the vibe of the show, but the opening notes of “Madhuvan” instantly sent a shock through the crowd – this concert was far from over.
Building on the decimating evil energy of the previous week’s Milwaukee version, we got twenty minutes of some of the nastiest two-guitar Goose this band has ever unleashed, Anspach and Mitarotonda showing off why they have some of the best interplay in the game.
Goedde once again put the band behind a thick curtain of light as they whaled on their instruments, simmering in some vicious wah spaces thanks to Anspach and producing several different riffs to jam around as the first half of the jam continued with full foot-to-the-floor energy.
This could have easily been an exceptional 15-minute “Madhuvan,” but we dove down into the depths of what the Westville “Rockdale” motif would sound like with Anspach on guitar, complete with a deep and warbling synth drone as tension built and built until the band exploded into a blistering progression that was anything but triumphant – but still had the crowd dancing some of its hardest of the night, even more than the disco dance party “Sinnerman.”
Encore jams are a thing now, I guess…hell yeah.
With the conclusion of “Madhuvan” (and an exclamatory “woo!” from Anspach right as they re-entered the song), Anspach thanked the sold-out crowd one more time and the band walked off stage for the last time on this legendary February 2025 tour.
From the first notes in Milwaukee, it was clear that the evolution Goose began undergoing in their jams in late 2024 drew a path to a level of playing we have never heard before, as they matched the musicality with new setlist placements and an overall feeling that 2025 is bound to be the best year yet for this band if they sustain this through summer tour and beyond.
The only sad part is that we don’t get another full Goose show until Viva El Gonzo nearly three months from now – but it’s made my excitement for the event and beyond all the greater. If you’re not sold on this band yet somehow, there’s no better time to start listening…just hit play on this tour and prepare to have your mind blown.
THANK YOU, Goose, for an unforgettable run – and I know that there’s still so much more new territory to cover from here!