Goose Kicks Off 1st Tour With New Drummer Cotter Ellis In St. Louis

Goose opened their summer tour last night with their first of two shows at The Factory in St. Louis. The trek marks the first for the current lineup of guitarist Rick Mitarotonda, guitarist/keyboardist Peter Anspach, bassist Trevor Weekz, multi-instrumentalist Jeff Arevalo and new drummer Cotter Ellis.

The Connecticut-based jam quartet chose the slow, melodic version of “All I Need” to get the show and tour underway. Goose jammed “All I Need” into fellow staple “Time To Flee” for another extended excursion and then worked through the end of both songs. Each tune as well as the “Mr. Action” that followed went unplayed during Ellis’ first run with the band at The Capitol Theatre in Port Chester this past April.

Goose’s four-song first set in St. Louis closed with a massive 31-minute “Borne.” The Dripfield cut featured three distinct movements starting with a straight-forward exploration and continuing with a lengthy dance party not too far removed from Deodato’s discofied version of “Also Sprach Zarathustra,” aka “2001.” Rick Mitarotonda hit the gas out of the funky sequence to lead a build to a huge set-closing peak.

“Yeti” from Anspach’s Great Blue days launched the second set. “Slow Ready” emerged out of “Yeti” and led into a cover of Sergio Mendes’ “Mais Que Nada.” Mitarotonda then passed the lead vocal baton back to Anspach for the first “White Lights” featuring Ellis behind the kit. Next, the band took it down a notch with the pretty “Your Ocean” which included a potent solo from Rick Mitarotonda and Arevalo on guitar. An adventurous +23-minute take on the beloved “The Empress Of Organos” punctuated the second set last night.

Goose returned for a “Please Forgive Me” encore. Mitarotonda helmed the David Gray cover which was last played on November 20, 2023 at the band’s European tour closer in London.

Watch pro-shot video of last night’s “All I Need” opener below via nugs.net: