Goose Celebrates Goosemas With Debuts At Mohegan Sun Arena

Goose delivered their traditional Goosemas concert at Mohegan Sun Arena in Uncasville, Connecticut on Saturday. The home state holiday show, which was postponed in December due to COVID-19, marked the quintet’s arena debut and the band fittingly unveiled new material during the eventful three-set outing.

The highly anticipated Goosemas VIII got underway with the beloved Vince Guaraldi-composed “Linus & Lucy” of Peanuts fame, a staple of past Goosemas setlists. The disco-tinged “Yeti” followed before the band paired the recently debuted “Atlas Dogs” and the Vasudo-originating “Echo Of A Rose,” with both songs clocking in at around 15 minutes. The favorite “Slow Ready” came next ahead of another new tune to wrap up the first set, “Silver Rising,” debuted earlier this month but featuring a new harmony arrangement.

The second set got underway with a nearly 13-minute “Rockdale” before Goose took “Red Bird” on a 15-minute flight. “Rosewood Heart” then prefaced the first debut of the evening, Nina Simone’s “Sinnerman.” The quintet released a studio version of “Sinnerman” last November as part of Secretly Canadian’s charitable singles series honoring the label’s 25th anniversary. Goose then journeyed through “The Empress Of Organos.” Keyboardist/guitarist Peter Anspach heralded the third set before drummer Ben Atkind said he “wasn’t done yet.” The second set came to a close with a special moment when Ben successfully proposed to his longtime girlfriend Sam Wray.

After the emotional conclusion to the second set, Goose presented a seamless, three-song third frame featuring new or recently debuted material. Up first was “Borne,” the opening track on the five-piece’s forthcoming Dripfield studio album. The quintet gave “Borne” a 15-minute focus before working through Dripfield’s second song, “Hungersite,” a big debut at 17 minutes. Goose recently released the video for Dripfield’s title track and treated fans at Mohegan Sun to an 18-minute live unveiling. The well-jammed set turned out to include the first three tracks from Dripfield performed in the order they will appear on the LP, which arrives on June 24.

As the band returned for the encore, Anspach gave shout-outs to Goose fans, noting that they sold their arena debut out, and acknowledged the hard work of the Goose crew. The quintet then delivered an expansive take on the beloved “Arcadia” to bring a show that will go down in Goose history to a close.

Check out pro-shot video from the show below, including the “Hungersite” debut, thanks to Relix and Goose as well as a clip of Ben’s proposal. Also, listen to full-show audio of the instant classic concert via MikeD(VT):

Setlist (via Jive Goose)

Set One: Linus and Lucy, Yeti, Atlas Dogs > Echo of a Rose, So Ready, Silver Rising

Set Two: Rockdale, Red Bird > Rosewood Heart, Sinnerman, The Empress of Organos

Set Three: Borne > Hungersite > Dripfield

Encore: Arcadia

Notes:

• – new vocal harmonies in Silver Rising
• – Sinnerman FTP
• – Hungersite FTP
• – Dripfield FTP