Show Review - Goose 5/28/25 San Francisco, CA
Summer of SALT
Goose continued the west coast leg of their summer tour last night with the second of two nights at San Francisco’s Masonic, following up the titanic first show with an affair lighter on improv overall but still boasted a pair of exceptional jams.
The night began in a more classic pattern with “So Ready,” setting a high bar energy-wise with extended and fiery guitar solos from both Peter Anspach and Rick Mitarotonda.
Drummer Cotter Ellis fronted “Draconian Meter Maid” next, the song continuing its strong 2025 run with another beautiful bliss segment. While recent versions of this tune have followed a similar pattern, the open and flowing groove that the band drops into each time is so pleasant, and it feels like they lock in as a quartet very quickly in this space.
Hair-raisingly beautiful guitar lines poured forth from Mitarotonda as the band hit a collective peak, coming down and landing in the intro of “Mr. Action” to complete a classic three-pack of opener songs. The Wednesday night crowd was noticeably more amped that Tuesday’s, and the blazing hot guitar solo on this tune whipped the Bay Area faithful into a frenzy ahead of Father John Misty’s “I’m Writing a Novel.”
At this point in the set, it was time for the band to bust open the improvisational doors, and “SALT” was perfectly suited to that – usually placed as a set closer, the lone jammed out version before last night from 9/17/24 in Utah showed off the song’s limitless potential, and the band built on that last night.
Tearing through the song proper with serious momentum, Ellis laid out a speedy pocket with his perfectly thumpy snare sound, Anspach matching the hits with a repeated piano lick.
Mitarotonda, Anspach, and bassist Trevor Weekz probed in the wide-open space, the latter quickly laying down a foundation that featured some fantastic melodic interplay with the guitar riffs.
Anspach switched to a textural role, coaxing subtle and tripped-out pads out of his Roland JUNO-60 synth as Mitarotonda found an aggressive new progression. Anspach continued to toy with dynamics while Ellis refused to let a drop of momentum leave the jam, the space expanding further as bright Vintage Vibe was introduced.
The contrast between the textural keys and more aggressive guitar lines really emphasized the strong communication and listening between the band members, things hitting into an uplifting zone that seemed to be destined for a massive peak, but the band had other ideas and shifted into a more menacing zone with Anspach’s switch to piano.
Mitarotonda followed his lead into the darkness, getting more and more aggressive with a “Crazy Train” tease for good measure, stripping things back into some stop/start jamming with Ellis continuing to trash everything in his path.
Guitar and keys chased each other up and down scales in the way that they have been doing so well lately in darker jams, the tension continuing to build and build before finally exploding back into “SALT” proper like a heat-seeking missile, wrapping up the song after 15 minutes of pure heat and energy.
SUMMER OF SALT. It’s coming.
“Turned Clouds” felt a little bit weird in the next slot, bringing a more mellow vibe to the post-“SALT” feral energy of the crowd, but I was very happy to see “Torero” make an appearance to close the set, a very solid dual-guitar jam taking us into the break for the song’s second-ever performance.
“Dr. Darkness” opened the second set for the first time since 12/31/22, the band taking on the dissonant intro without Mitarotonda, who popped offstage almost immediately after walking on due to forgetting something. This was just a prelude to the main event of the set, as the band uncorked the first truly massive rendition of “Dustin Hoffman,” stretching past the 20-minute mark for the first time in its short history.
Out of the anthemic song proper, the band went the Chateau Sessions route and dropped directly into a slinky funk groove propelled by the rhythm section. Anspach took to a subtle and minimalist JUNO patch, settling in for a long exploration of the space.
Mitarotonda stuck to rhythmic work, accentuating the funk with some quick bursts of lead riffs before eventually leading the band through an airy major-key modulation atop a pivot to ride cymbal by Ellis. Anspach took his percussive synth tones and expanded them out into a bright pad before turning around to OB-6 and introducing more floaty tones on that synth and then Vintage Vibe.
The gorgeous jam moved from there into an incredible long-form build, the band doing what they do best with some absolutely astounding emotional playing, tugging at the heartstrings of all present and calling back to jams like the 9/27/24 “Dripfield” with its psychedelic lead synth quality.
Mitarotonda burst forth eventually and took the reins, blazing through peak after peak and finding a nice ascending progression that seemed to hint at a “Time to Flee” quality before the band cooled off at the apex and smoothly worked their way into the ending of “Big Modern!,” completing the version from Tuesday much to my delight.
“Wysteria Lane” was tapped next as another heavy hitter and saw the band contrast nicely with the “Dustin” jam as they pushed into a grimy dual-guitar space. Anspach looped some textures on his instrument and began to play mad scientist over Ellis’ quick disco beat, infusing various arpeggiated sounds for a unique bout of improv.
Hitting into a crazed dance jam, the band continued to build in this unhinged space for a while before segueing – somewhat prematurely – into “Echo of a Rose” at Mitarotonda’s urging.
It was time for high-energy shred at this point as Mitarotonda proceeded to rip the roof off the Masonic with aggressive envelope-filter soloing in the concise version, eventually landing in a set-closing “Green River” – the final verse not played on Tuesday. The only miss here was not playing an appropriate “Loose Ends” to reference all the tying up that was being done.
A hot “Arcadia” encore hinted at more jamming that could have happened if there wasn’t an impending curfew, with Anspach and Mitarotonda twining around a blissy progression and excellent synth pad work before cutting into the blazing ending.
Goose continues tour tomorrow night in the Pacific Northwest with their first outdoor headlining show at Bend’s Hayden Homes Amphitheater. Will we go three for three on “Green River”? Stay tuned to find out – livestreams are available exclusively to nugs All Access subscribers.
