Show Review - Goose 6/21/25 Canandaigua, NY

SinnerGOONTZ

There’s something about amphitheatres in upstate New York for summer shows, and last night’s Goose performance at CMAC was perfectly emblematic of that – a hot night, a packed shed, an amazing crowd, and a band that really brought it for their last proper headlining show for almost a week.

Opening up with “Iguana Song,” the band continued their streak of expanding on the version before it that each of the five performances has had to date. Instead of sticking to form as the other versions had done, multi-instrumentalist Peter Anspach led his bandmates through a brief foray into a major-key zone, guitarist Rick Mitarotonda picking out some blissful melodies before they ripped back into the conclusion of “Iguana” with the ferocity of a “Madhuvan.”

With the energy high from the jump, the band funked through a clav-centric arrangement of “Jack-A-Roe,” busting out the traditional cover for the first time since the acoustic Radio City set on 6/24/22, or 234 shows. The atypical arrangement of the Grateful Dead-popularized song featured an absolutely FILTHY pocket from drummer Cotter Ellis, his fluid-yet-tight playing style perfectly fitting the track.

“Draconian Meter Maid” was up next and acted as the set’s first properly adventurous jam. Beginning in the song’s usual mellow bliss, Goose opened up into a vibe that fit the sunset evening setting perfectly. Ellis increased the pace as the band began to dive into more of a percussive, driving zone, moving away from the peak-centric vibe that has dominated many of 2025’s versions of “Meter Maid.” Bassist Trevor Weekz made his presence known with some pulsing envelope-filter work, the rest of the band getting busier and more frenetic around him before Anspach hit the clav.

Mitarotonda copied some riffs from Weekz’ fills before emphasizing some rhythm work as the bassist took a melodic lead. The energy began to pick up more with Ellis utilizing some heavy snare, pushing things along smoothly while Anspach stuck on a fun progression that was soon joined by the rest of the band.

The funk deepened for a while before the band transitioned into a new space, keeping the pocket up but now with some heavy digital sauce from Mitarotonda. Ellis continued to dominate things with incredibly articulate snare work before the jam mellowed out, slowed down, and slid beautifully into the intro to “Dustin Hoffman.”

Continuing the exceptional flow of the set, Goose used the funk vehicle as a launchpad for a mellow peak jam, working up to a solid, if inside-the-box climax before fading into a surprise short-rest performance of “Borne.”

“Rockdale” came in next for the penultimate song of the first set, its percussive and funky jam getting into some cool teasing of “Into the Myst” as Mitarotonda threw in some quotes of the song’s ending before concluding “Rockdale” – while this is not the deepest or longest of jams, there’s some interesting interplay among the laid-back groove that is absolutely worth a listen.

To bring the first set to a close, Goose milked “Animal” for all it was worth, Mitarotonda leading the band through a long burst of sustained peak energy – and the crowd ate up every second, sending the band into setbreak with raucous cheers.

Returning from intermission, the band kicked into the first “Eminence Front” of the year, an always-reliable tone-setter for a second set. It’s a singalong, it hits hard, and it perfectly tees up whatever big jam vehicle is on deck – in this case, “Dripfield.”

This one NEVER gets old – and last night was my 32^nd time seeing it live. The band went for the jugular from the first notes just like they did in Grand Rapids earlier this year, building a monumental and absolutely volcanic peak over the course of 18 minutes.

Anspach hit the clav and then piano as things got going, Ellis seeming to be everywhere at once on his kit as he hammered away at the primal groove. Mitarotonda took the lead and blew things sky-high with Weekz anchoring the peak beautifully.

Landing from there, the band audibled “Sinnerman,” a cover that has shown up a lot in 2025, but usually in a set-closing slot. This time, the band took it into full Goontz land for nearly 19 minutes, Differently than previous iterations of the electronic-inspired jam, this one retained a loose sense of “Sinnerman” throughout the blazing hot peak, both Anspach and Mitarotonda throwing in the song’s chord progression in from time to time.

“Big Modern!” came in next and didn’t let a single drop of energy or momentum go as the band built an egalitarian peak together, putting another worthy notch in the belt of 2025 “Modern” jams – not doing anything out of the ordinary but absolutely blowing us away with another peak before closing the second set off with “Give It Time.”

A blistering – and short – “Thatch” brought us to the conclusion of the excellent show – a whole vs sum-of-its-parts situation where the lack of a marquee jam was more than made up for by impeccable setlisting, flow, energy, and pockets of interesting improvisation to bring us one of the best shows of the summer so far.

Goose continues on tonight for two headlining sets at Mountain Jam starting at 7PM ET – a livestream is available FREE on Volume.com.

Join us live this afternoon as we recap on Always Almost There!