Goose Debuts Cover Of Grateful Dead Holy Triumvirate At Goosemas XI Finale

Goose returned to the North Charleston Coliseum last night for the second and final show of their eleventh annual Goosemas celebration, putting the cap on the most successful event yet with a blend of unique improv, gimmicks and incredible energy.

After Friday’s bingo ball pulls went heavy on songs and left the majority of the “specialty” ones on the table, some uncertainty existed about how coherent the show might end up being – luckily, the balls were in our favor and pulled “Madhuvan” as the first song after the band walked on stage to “Sirius” for the second night in a row.

For the first time in a long time, multi-instrumentalist Peter Anspach stayed on guitar throughout the whole improvisational journey, beginning with an effects-laden haze. Drummer Cotter Ellis utilized toms to cover the space among a thick carpet of sound from Anspach as guitarist Rick Mitarotonda and bassist Trevor Weekz pushed forward into a tense motif akin to the March 1, 2022 “Drive.”

From there, the band uncorked a 2021-style dueling guitar frenzy, hearkening back to the runaway freight train vibes we used to see with regularity – Anspach putting his prowess on full display with raging torrents of sound underneath Mitarotonda’s leads, but with a 2024 maturity that essentially highlights how far Weekz has come as a player recently.

“Borne” led into the first cover debut of the night via Bonus Ball #5, revealed to be Paul Simon’s “Slip Sliding Away.” Mitarotonda has the perfect vocal range for this cover and its peppy energy made a great bridge into “One In, One Out.”

Sticking close to home for the majority of its runtime, Anspach’s punchy marimba piano poked and prodded at the song’s structure for a while before the band uncorked a volcanic and blissy peak, much to the delight of the crowd. Mitarotonda especially utilized the earworm riff of “OIOO” as a launching point, returning back to it several different times among exploratory melodies.

Post-peak, the band cooled into a propulsive groove and pulled the next ball, revealing itself to be “D&B&Flamingoes,” a hilarious gimmick that featured Mitarotonda and Anspach crowd surfing across the floor atop big inflatable flamingoes while Weekz, Ellis and percussionist Jeff Arevalo dug in on a hot rhythmic centerpiece. It’s cool to hear Weekz’ musical ideas take center stage with the absence of guitar and keys – so while the real spectacle of this part was the flamingo surfing, the track is well worth a close listen.

With the full band returning to the stage, improv continued at full tilt with the pull of “+14 Minute Jam,” Ellis slowing things down and Anspach going in on some punchy marimba piano. Creating a hypnotic repeating riff as he is wont to do lately, Mitarotonda began to play off him with some similar minimalist riffs, things gradually getting more uneasy and tense before Anspach used his Moog Muse synthesizer to wash some evil siren sounds across the space.

Getting heavier, Weekz pushed forward some high-register bends as Anspach rose on some synth pads before going to piano and hammering some evil chords. Ellis quickly followed suit and got aggressive as the full band launched into a hammering motif of pure evil that had the energy of the room actually exploding.

Normally, the band likely would have headed for a segue after such a phenomenal peak, but the necessity to hit 14 minutes meant that they needed to find a new vein. Inspiration was abundant as Mitarotonda pulled the band into a breezy major key, and, riding the wave of Ellis’ fluid playing, the band built to an incredibly cathartic apex that just felt like a conclusion to all the leaps forward they’ve made in jamming, applying their newfound leveled-up approach to classic motifs for elevated music.

Post-peak, the band gave us a bonus dose of blistering funk – Anspach’s classic shreddy clav playing once again getting an upgrade with some really cool interplay with Mitarotonda’s guitar before the band pulled a “Rockdale” ball and executed a BEAUTIFUL segue without losing a drop of momentum.

Anspach quickly took the lead on the jam with a combination of squishy Moog chords and heavy reverb and delay on clav, getting atmospheric around Mitarotonda’s wah riffs early on. Simulating a drop of water hitting a still pond with his sounds, the band developed into a more propulsive theme next with the intensity going up but then mellowed out thanks to a switch by Anspach to piano.

While Weekz continued to rumble through the low end, Mitarotonda almost faded into the background with quiet and dreamlike melodies, coasting through a major modulation for a few seconds of incredible patience. This was not to last however, as Weekz’ counterpoints quickly inspired a return to a darker space, building from there to a seamless return to “Rockdale” and conclusion to the first set – marking one of Goose’s best segments of the year.

For the second frame, the band clearly was on a mission to play as many of the fun balls as possible, so shied away from big jams (for the most part). “All I Need” was quickly left behind for “Creatures,” and an expectation of a standard dance party rager was quickly abandoned when the band marinated in the intro for several minutes, getting things off to a blazing start even before the jam.

“Creatures” has always been a favorite of lighting designer Andrew Goedde’s, and his continued use of rotating strobes is always a treat – but with the addition of his special Goosemas square suspended above the center of the arena just enhanced every aspect of the lighting with bright beams reaching even the furthest corners of the room.

Anspach spent a little bit of time in his usual Vintage Vibe electric piano vamp at the outset of the jam, but soon pivoted to set up an arpeggiator and then picked up his guitar for the first “Creatures” in years to feature two-guitar Goose.

An absolutely filthy funk jam developed from there, Anspach’s choppy and sharp-toned rhythm work contrasting nicely with Mitarotonda’s smoother work as the intensity ramped up gradually thanks to Ellis and well-timed percussion hits from Arevalo.

Cooling off post-peak, a big ball pull for “The Empress of Organos” (after another well-crafted segue) led into Bonus Ball #2 – “Don’t Leave Me This Way” by Harold Melvin & The Blue Notes. This was the point in the show where I think the entire arena just reached the highest point of energy and joy that was going to be possible as the bingo balls continued to pull perfect calls with “Get Down Tonight” by way of Bonus Ball #3.

The dance party continued for close to 15 minutes of raging music, bingo host Lucky Lou even hopping on percussion with Arevalo for the final few minutes. “Atlas Dogs” and “Echo of a Rose” pulls saw the band breeze through the setlist staples in search of more of the fun balls as they were with rewarded with “$ready,” a mashup of “Slow Ready” and “So Ready” that saw the band play a verse of each song followed by the “Slow” arpeggiator jam.

Fitting the vibe of the set perfectly, we got the first-ever “Slow Ready” jam with Anspach on guitar, his work sounding as much like the band Parcels as Goose ever has – a really cool treat that I hope indicates that we’re in for some more expansion within this song going forward.

Returning for the encore, Anspach read off a long list of the entire Goose crew to thank them for putting on such an incredible event before noting that they’d pull one ball “and then play some other shit.” “Dripfield” was the lucky winner and could not have been more perfectly placed, Goose’s original arena anthem bringing the house down for the last instance of the balls giving.

The band went for “M@rball” next, which brought Weekz’ alter ego DJ Marb Menthols to the Goose stage for the first time for several minutes of absolutely insane turntable techno jamming, it sounding really good in the context of the full band. The momentum kept going once Weekz picked his instrument back up and Anspach went all in on phaser piano, Mitarotonda blazing through several peaks as the energy in the room continued to exist at its highest level with 10,000 people dancing their hardest (and t-shirt cannons were fired from the stage, because why not?).

If the energy had been high before, the opening to “Help on the Way” had the North Charleston Coliseum erupting into absolute pandemonium. The Grateful Dead classic had never been performed by Goose before and let Arevalo show off his rhythm guitar work in the Bob Weir role alongside Mitarotonda’s perfect fill of the Garcia riffs. Expertly transitioning into “Slipknot!,” Goose built tension once again for a few minutes, giving us new hopes for this suite to return for huge jams in the future.

“Franklin’s Tower” with verses sung by each band member was the perfect conclusion – or would have been, but the band one-upped the energy one final time for the end of “Empress” that had been left behind earlier in the second set. With crowd participation heading into the final chorus, Goose closed out their holiday weekend with nothing but joy and excitement – the sense of community in the Goose scene that has grown and grown recently just continues to blow me away with how excited everyone is at every single show.

This is a band who has evolved so much over the past year – and even the last few months – and continues to commit to elevating their music in every aspect. I was lucky enough to celebrate my 100th Goose show last night and just feel an immense amount of gratitude for the ability to have written about every time I’ve seen them, plus a fitting full-circle moment to have shows 1 and 100 both be a monumental Goosemas for the band.

Looking back on 2024 Goose, it’s clear that their upward trajectory is far from finished, and while they still have a duo of shows left to close out the year in Austin, one eye is already on 2025 and beyond where they will no doubt return to the road with an ever-expanding take on music and a beautiful community that just overflows with excitement for every show.

Thank you to the whole Goose band and crew for another perfect Goosemas weekend – if this event is at all possible for you to attend next year, put it on the list immediately because it might just be the most fun you’ll have all year both in the venue and in the surrounding community-based activities.

Both nights are available for audio streaming on nugs, plus on-demand purchase of the livestreams are up for a limited time – take advantage and go see what the magic is about for yourself.

We got involved, we went with the balls…and it was a hell of a time.

Watch pro-shot video of the “One In, One Out” > “D&B Flamingos” > “Rockdale” sequence along with fan-shot footage from Saturday’s show below:

Photos by Abby Fox Photography

Official Audio (via nugs.net)

Setlist (via El Goose.net)

Set 1: Sirius[1] > Madhuvan, Borne > Slip Slidin’ Away[2], One In, One Out -> Jam[3] -> Jam[4] -> Rockdale

Set 2: All I Need[5] -> Creatures > The Empress Of Organos > Don’t Leave Me This Way[6], Get Down Tonight[7], Atlas Dogs[8] -> Echo of a Rose[9] > Slow Ready[10] > So Ready[10] -> Slow Ready[10]

Encore: Dripfield[8] > Jam[11], Help on the Way[12] -> Slipknot![12] > Franklin’s Tower[13] -> The Empress Of Organos

• This show was part of Goosemas XI: Bingo and the setlist was decided by random draws of bingo balls.
• [1] The Alan Parsons Project.
• [2] Paul Simon. FTP. Bonus Ball #5.
• [3] D&B&Flamingos bingo ball. Rick and Peter crowd surfed on inflatable flamingos while the rest of the band played.
• [4] +14 Minute Jam bingo ball.
• [5] Slow, melodic version. Unfinished.
• [6] Harold Melvin & The Blue Notes. FTP. Bonus Ball #2.
• [7] KC and the Sunshine Band. FTP. Bonus Ball #3. With Lucky Lou on percussion and That’s The Way (I Like It) tease.
• [8] Unfinished.
• [9] Fast version. Unfinished.
• [10] $ready bingo ball.
• [11] M@rball and Cannons bingo balls. With DJ Marb Menthols on turntables.
• [12] Grateful Dead. FTP. Bonus Ball #1.
• [13] Grateful Dead. FTP. Unfinished. Bonus Ball #1.