Goose Covers Nirvana, Christopher Cross & Debuts New Song On Viva El Gonzo Opening Night

Goose's inaugural destination festival, Viva El Gonzo, made its debut yesterday in San José del Cabo, Mexico, among a beautiful estuary on the Sea of Cortez. Bringing together an impressive lineup of bands from the jam scene and beyond, the Connecticut quartet and their team combined three different stages, each with wildly unique vibes and setups, for an action-packed 12-hour day of music that had attendees heading out the gates over the moon with joy.

Early-bird fans on the beach were treated to a special Morgan Peacock DJ set to kick off the festivities (alias of Eggy drummer Alex Bailey) before the first official set took place at the Crania stage.

Crania, usually a host to local EDM acts every weekend, is an incredibly cool area with an industrial vibe, repurposed cranes and shipping containers making up much of the décor. Andy Frasco & The U.N. were an obvious and perfect choice to get things started – as one of the festival organizers Dan Berkowitz introduced him as the “sacrificial lamb” of sorts, Frasco proceeded to whip the scorching hot afternoon crowd into a frenzy as only he can do.

With sit-ins from Steve Poltz, Cordovas, Lindsay Lauren and the Eggy rhythm section, Frasco dubbed Crania “jam band Mad Max” as he set the tone for the rest of the day – an aura of community and fun.

As the scorching sun continued to beat down, fans were able to explore the rest of the festival grounds – the walk to the main stage on a big, grassy field and then “Round Rocks,” a stage “in the round” with – you guessed it – big rocks everywhere that will be a perfect setting for Goose’s special acoustic set on Saturday.

Mihali was up next at that stage, his duo project blending his guitar, live backing loops, and a saxophone for a really cool mid-afternoon set before the first main-stage band in Dogs In A Pile.

Ripping through an energetic set as the sun finally began to dip closer to the horizon, the New Jersey quintet highlighted an exploratory “Burning Daylight” that got into some tight and deep grooves, plus a “Dancing in the Streets”-infused “Go Set,” an appropriate homage given the importance of May 8th in Grateful Dead lore.

Dawes followed things up with an excellent early evening set, breaking from the jammier vibe of the late afternoon for a songwriting-focused segment.

One of the other really unique things about Viva El Gonzo is that virtually every band gets two sets over the course of the weekend, meaning that they were all able to pick and choose songs for the specific set times and vibes of each one.

Tycho was the last act up before Goose’s headlining slot, and Crania was transformed into a pulsating dance club for his live band set. Now with the sun down, the visuals behind the band were absolutely phenomenal, and the moon shined brightly down on the crowd as the smooth quartet unleashed some amazing electronic jamming as a prelude to the main event.

Goose took the stage promptly at 9:15 p.m. to thunderous cheers from the assembled crowd, wasting no time and unleashing a hot “Drive” opener that featured some amazing dual-guitar churn work from Rick Mitarotonda and Peter Anspach, the flowing improv smoothly resolving into the opening of “Your Direction.”

In its second live outing, the band reworked it for more of an upbeat ’80s disco vibe – and for a new song, the force of the crowd’s singing on the chorus was a real testament to how excited Goose fans are about the band right now, plus the overall sense of gratitude for being where we were.

Opening up the song into a major-key disco jam akin to “Slow Ready,” the band let loose with a practiced ease through the sustained Mitarotonda-led peak before descending smoothly into the opening of “Lead Up.”

“Turned Clouds” saw some more fretboard fireworks from the guitarist before the band welcomed Mihali to the stage to lead a debut cover of Nirvana's “In Bloom,” a hilarious contrast to the multiple yacht rock-y and beach vibe songs played elsewhere in the show.

While there are still two unplayed songs off the band’s recent LP release Everything Must Go, they opted to debut a brand-new song to close last night’s first set – “Torero,” which translates to “bullfighter” from Spanish. The song was instantly a hit among the crowd, with excellent vocal harmonies between Mitarotonda, Anspach, and drummer Cotter Ellis, but the real star was the jam.

Two-guitar Goose was out in full effect last night, and Anspach really shined like Michael Jordan’s flu game, being laid low with a bout of food poisoning but powering through to absolutely destroy it musically.

Ellis led the way into this jam section with a rolling tom beat, bassist Trevor Weekz fluidly traversing around his beat as a churning motif took shape once again. Building tension upon tension, the band hit a peak within the song’s boundaries before breaking into a fragmented dissonant space akin to the February 15, 2025 “Madhuvan.” Pushing into double-time from there, both guitarists heavily hinted at the bridge of “Tumble” as they roared through a vicious section and final chorus before heading into the break.

Almost exactly 30 minutes later, the band returned for the second cover debut of the night – this time Christopher Cross' “Ride Like The Wind,” which got a huge reaction out of the crowd. Mitarotonda was all over the segues last night, and used the ending of the song to delve into a masterful and patient transition toward “Into the Myst,” Anspach strapping on his guitar and dancing around the song’s main riff for several minutes before finally hitting into it.

A dreamlike space developed as the band toggled between major and minor for a spell, eventually settling on an upbeat space where Anspach really took the lead on vibrato-heavy Vintage Vibe and then whirlwind piano licks as the intensity grew. One blistering peak later, a perfect call for “Give it Time” had the greatest moment of collective joy that we experienced last night, everyone singing together with arms raised to one of Goose’s most moving and emotional songs.

Mitarotonda tore into the ensuing “Fish in the Sea” with a vengeance, his tone dialed to the perfect amount of grit as he shredded several sustained peaks, doing what this song does best and just giving everyone an opportunity to DANCE.

With just over 20 minutes left on the clock, the band opted for a colossal “Big Modern!” closer, executing one of the most incredible linear builds I can remember seeing from them. The restraint shown by Mitarotonda for much of the jam was absolutely phenomenal, his rhythm work coloring the space as Anspach and Weekz built upon a repeating riff, Ellis all the while pushing the intensity ever so slightly with each passing moment.

When the first lead blast hit toward the end, it was like the sun rose over the horizon (or maybe it was just birthday boy Andrew Goedde letting loose with his massively impressive new light rig), bringing it home with an absolutely phenomenal final jam and a gritty, extended turn through the dark, heavy metal ending to “Big Modern!”

As if we weren’t lucky enough with the day’s music already, fans traversed back to Crania through the psychedelic path, now augmented on either side by wavy lights in the forest that gave the desert grass the impression that it was gently rolling waves on the ocean.

Eggy took the stage and seemed to tap right into the energy Goose had just wrapped up with a rollicking “Trixieville” opener, guitarist Jake Brownstein opening things up for an early high-octane shred peak.

“Woah There” really got the late-night vibes going with a slinky funk jam, keyboardist Dani Battat laying into some ultra-smooth electric piano tones as the band cultivated a layered, outer-space sound thanks to Brownstein’s textural work.

If it was possible to not be completely sold on Eggy by this point, the quartet uncorked a potent “Must Come Down” into “Razi” into “Smile” segment to bring up the disco vibes, “Razi” in particular getting a massive peak build in a tense zone, the band working together to get higher and higher before the final explosion.

To close out the set, Eggy brought Mitarotonda out for a rocking “You Can Call Me Al” cover, where he and Brownstein engaged in some amazing interplay and hit some almost Allman Brothers Band-like twin-lead action.

The final act of the night was LP Giobbi's Dead House, and she eschewed that by beginning with her own remixes of Goose songs – some unreleased takes on “Hungersite,” “Slow Ready” and “Travelers” mixed in her smooth drops and high vibes. Mitarotonda joined in the fun – after a wardrobe change – to jam along with the DJ, adding guitar to remixes of various Grateful Dead tracks but also wild card picks like “Whole Lotta Love” and “Free Bird.”

Twelve action-packed hours on our feet and the energy in Cabo could not be higher heading into day two of Viva El Gonzo. The Goose team, alongside META, have put on such an incredible experience here for all of us that has already been one of my top festival and overall live music experiences of my life.

Watch livestreams of Goose’s headlining sets for the next two nights via nugs.net.

Setlist via (El Goose)

Set One: Drive[1] -> Your Direction > Lead Up, Turned Clouds, In Bloom[2], Torero[3]

Set Two: Ride Like The Wind[4] -> Into the Myst[5] > Give it Time, Fish In The Sea, Big Modern!

Notes:

• [1] Unfinished.
• [2] Nirvana. FTP. With Mihali Savoulidis on guitar on vocals.
• [3] FTP.
• [4] Christopher Cross. FTP.
• [5] Unfinished. With Tequila teases.