Goose Busts Out ‘Achy Breaky Heart’ Cover At ‘Sleeveless In Seattle’ Finale

Goose spring tour continued last night for their second of two nights at Seattle’s Paramount Theatre. After Saturday night’s PA issues, the band went big for a Sunday night rager as they dropped two sets of nonstop heat.

While lighter on the deep improvisation than Saturday (hard to match up to a 45-minute “Echo Of A Rose”45-minute “Echo of a Rose”), the energy in the building was absolutely off the charts for the duration of the show.

A well-flowing first set began with “Turbulence & The Night Rays,” an old Vasudo song written by guitarist Rick Mitarotonda and his long-time collaborator Matt Campbell for the pre-Goose band. A soaring guitar solo showed off why “Turbulence” has become one of the most reliable openers in the Goose catalogue.

A brief blast of dissonance gave way to “Dr. Darkness,” a song very much at the other end of the emotional spectrum. Both are incredible examples of the strength that Mitarotonda routinely displays in his songwriting and the diversity of the moods he can hit. The set continued with the Peter Anspach-penned “Yeti” and saw the multi-instrumentalist hop around the stage with glee as his signature delayed-guitar lines rang out across the theatre.

The emotional Mitarotonda compositions continued with “Silver Rising,” a beautifully written song about the internal struggles of a werewolf. Through the perfectly harmonized vocal round and the searing guitar solo, arms were raised high throughout the venue as the collective joy of nearly 3,000 people came together.

The opening chords of “In Your Eyes” elicited big cheers from the capacity crowd — the Peter Gabriel cover has only been performed by Goose six times and has shown itself to be a reliable jam vehicle in addition to a spectacular performance. Washes of synth from Anspach complemented Mitarotonda’s exceptional vocals as the band made their way through the song proper. Tapping deep into a rhythmic pocket to start the jam, drummer Ben Atkind and percussionist Jeff Arevalo locked in over an almost tribal beat as the music evolved.

Peaks upon peaks of rolling guitar licks led to a brief foray into some heavy funk before the quintet landed on the intro to “Tumble.” After multiple consecutive versions blending the “vibey” arrangement of the song with the usual composed section in jam, hearing the return of the faster and more upbeat “Tumble” felt fresh. While the improvisation didn’t stray far from the song itself, the band built to multiple explosions of energy that closed the first frame on a high note.

Sunday night’s second set opened with a lengthy “Hot Tea,” another song that was well received by the rowdy Seattle crowd. The band dug in on some more disco-funk that saw Anspach moving around his rig from synths to clav and then to organ across the jam.

The dual-part “Seekers on the Ridge” acted as the breather of the set ahead of an immediate energy infusion with the opening guitar riff of “Creatures.” This jam began with an incendiary solo from Anspach on Vintage Vibe — using some distortion to give the keyboard some extra oomph. Mitarotonda stepped up and showed off some fretboard fireworks to bring the Type I portion of the jam to a close. A brief moment of searching and the hint at a possible segue led to the formation of a gorgeous major-key motif.

Goose has been excelling at bliss jams in 2023 so far, seeming to infuse extra emotion and power into the bright jams, and last night’s “Creatures” was no different. The bliss jam transformed into a theme that hinted at “Electric Avenue” and featured some very Allman Brothers-like playing from Mitarotonda as he and bassist Trevor Weekz went back and forth with a variety of melodic ideas.

The oddly short second set closed with the first cover of Billy Ray Cyrus’ “Achy Breaky Heart” since the band’s pandemic Bingo Tour livestreamed event on June 27, 2020, a significant gap of 174 shows, with the last version performed in front of a crowd played on December 23, 2016. Weekz sported a cowboy hat for the tune as he fronted the band in an exceptionally rare lead vocal performance.

The sub-hour duration of the second set was more than made up for in the extended encore, which began with sexy dance party “Slow Ready.” Anspach busted out his signature dance moves as the arpeggiator jam hit peak after peak and the audience fed off his infectious joy. Ripping directly into “Factory Fiction” to close the show, the Seattle crowd absolutely ERUPTED for the special song. Goose delivered a nearly 20-minute show closer that somehow invigorated the crowd even further than they had been up to that point.

Across the two nights in Seattle this weekend, the Connecticut quintet powered through sound issues to deliver both their longest jam to date and a ton of vibe-powered playing. With six shows left on this leg of tour, we are sure to be in for many more memorable moments and song selection!

The tour continues on Tuesday night at Eugene, Oregon’s McDonald Theatre. nugs.net subscribers can watch the webcast for free.

Watch more fan-shot video from last night’s show and stream official audio via nugs.net below:

Setlist (via El Göose.net)

Set One: Turbulence & The Night Rays, Dr. Darkness, Yeti, Silver Rising, In Your Eyes[1], Tumble

Set Two: Hot Tea, Seekers On The Ridge Pt. 1 > Seekers On The Ridge Pt. 2, Creatures, Achy Breaky Heart[2]

Encore: Slow Ready, Factory Fiction

Coach’s Notes:

• [1] Peter Gabriel. With Streets of Cairo tease from Rick.
• [2] Billy Ray Cyrus.

Coach’s Corner: Achy Breaky Heart was played for the first time since June 27, 2020 (174 shows).