Goose Welcomes Dawes’ Taylor & Griffin Goldsmith, Debuts ‘Iguana Song’ At Viva El Gonzo

Viva El Gonzo's second day dawned with more picture-perfect weather, fans returning to the festival grounds in San José del Cabo, Mexico to experience a new set of bands and collaborations after a wildly successful first day on Thursday.

Before any bands played, Goose members Peter Anspach and Cotter Ellis ran their respective extracurricular events on the beach, the former leading a mile running club and the latter refereeing a volleyball tournament – an amazing opportunity for those inclined to get involved.

The music began with a double shot of DJs at the Crania stage, good friends Rivka Ruth and LP Giobbi getting the ball rolling on a high note. Both brought amazing vibes and energy to their performances, and Giobbi in particular rallied for her second set in a 12-hour span after closing things down on Thursday.

LA LOM opened up Round Rocks, their sun-baked and smooth instrumental music suiting the scorching afternoon weather well as fans took them in at the 360-degree stage. Even in the earlier part of the day, members of other bands could be seen exploring the festival and taking in other acts, something you don’t see at many events like this.

Things kicked up a notch with Pigeons Playing Ping Pong’s first performance of the weekend, the funky quartet bringing the energy to the main stage with a power-hour of funk, highlighted by covers of “Rocket Man” and “Shine On You Crazy Diamond,” lead guitarist Jeremy Schon tearing through several strong solos as Alex “Gator” Petropulos showed off why he’s one of the tightest drummers in the scene.

Our first repeat act of the weekend came with Dawes, who also began a sit-in heavy run as they welcomed members of The War On Drugs to the stage early in their set before Goose guitarist Rick Mitarotonda joined in for a sandwich of their original “Most People” around the Grateful Dead’s “Fire on the Mountain.” The relationship between Goose and Dawes goes back several years to the Connecticut band’s 2021 FRED: The Festival, and their now-numerous collaborations over the years have led to an ease when the musicians share a stage.

Mitarotonda and Dawes frontman/guitarist Taylor Goldsmith sported ear-to-ear grins as they shredded through “Fire,” Mitarotonda utilizing some harmonized lead work that we had seen in his Thursday night Eggy sit in to accentuate the fun factor even further.

The only band at Viva El Gonzo to perform a single set across the whole weekend, The War On Drugs, brought some serious heat for the first performance after sunset, their maximalist indie sound contrasting well with the jam-heavy lineup.

Another noticeable factor during this set was the large number of War on Drugs fans who had seemingly bought day passes to the festival, adding big fans to the crowd who knew all the lyrics and music, whereas many Goose diehards weren’t as familiar. Mitarotonda was welcomed back for “Brothers,” adding his signature sound in to the mix.

In particular, I’m a huge fan of the Round Rocks acts scheduled just before Goose – many festivals would opt to leave time before the main headliner for people to settle in at the main stage, but the Viva El Gonzo team’s commitment to keeping a consistent flow of music at nearly all times offered an amazing late-evening Sierra Hull set before the big two-set affair.

Hull and her band emphasized several more mellow songs, a nice change of pace from the blistering War on Drugs sound as her soulful and twangy Tennessee sound echoed from the packed rocks.

Goose bounced on stage precisely at 9:15 to massive cheers and proceeded to follow up their already-strong first night with an absolutely blazing hot affair – while lighter on deep improv, the band put together two sets that flowed incredibly well and had every person on the big grassy field absolutely ecstatic.

A surprise – and bold – call for an “Arrow” opener continued the trend of early jamming, and the band stretched things out past the 20-minute mark in a surprise foray into deep Type II territory. A sustained and blistering guitar-forward peak section early on suddenly had the bottom drop out as drummer Cotter Ellis slowed things down and multi-instrumentalist Peter Anspach took us into outer space with a heavy dose of reverb clav.

Bassist Trevor Weekz, who has been extra active within jams this weekend, buoyed the jam with some melodic play as Mitarotonda took a textural approach, weaving loops and chords to leave Anspach at the forefront, whose glistening clav leads came close to the vocal melody of “Dark Star” at times with a beautiful and calming quality.

A flawless segue into “Bob Don” let Mitarotonda go in on a guitar solo, his inspiration from playing with The War On Drugs evident as he built up a wall of sound both in the main section of the song and the patient “With” outro, building from quiet to a psychedelic peak.

Ellis fronted “Draconian Meter Maid,” which continued its impressive batting average with the band going full bliss, Mitarotonda showing restraint just like in Thursday’s “Big Modern!” jam as he stuck to rhythm work for much of the jam. At a relatively short 13 minutes, “Meter Maid” stands out as one of the most memorable segments of the weekend as the band brought huge smiles – and even some tears of joy – to the entire concert field with the sheer emotional power of the music.

“Seekers on the Ridge” offered a late-set cooldown ahead of the live debut of Anspach cut “Iguana Song,” one of the two Everything Must Go songs that had yet to make it to the stage yet.

Let me tell you – it RULED.

For a first-time played song, an impressive number of fans knew every word to the catchy tune, but the real star was the driving jam. Much like “Butterflies,” Mitarotonda went ham on some textural effects as the rhythm section drove forward, but the real difference from the studio version came with a short dip into some dissonant tension-filled spaces, two guitar Goose on full display as the band rocketed the energy higher and higher before nailing the song’s closing arpeggio. Whether or not “Iguana Song” has a future as a jam vehicle or simply an amazing song remains to be seen, but it’s a winner either way.

The first set came to a close with a succinct and HOT rendition of “SALT,” some headbanging taking us into the break with more Mitarotonda fireworks.

During the 30-minute intermission, techs brought out an extra mic and assembled a small second drum kit next to Ellis, indicating that the Goldsmith brothers would be reciprocating Mitarotonda’s earlier sit-in with Dawes – and both musicians clearly did their homework as the augmented Goose let loose a highly memorable combination of “Atlas Dogs” -> “Rockdale,” both songs full of amazing harmonized guitar lines, shared vocals, and several absolutely volcanic peaks that had the crowd howling in delight.

“Red Bird” saw Goose strike back out into jamming territory on their own, Ellis cultivating a propulsive groove with incredible contributions from Weekz as Mitarotonda chose his phrases decisively. Anspach leaned hard into the piano as the band hit an early peak and executed another head-spinningly perfect segue into one of their absolute best covers, “State of the Art (A.E.I.O.U.).” This Jim James song elevates ANY show it’s in, and it perfectly teed up the monstrous “The Empress of Organos” that came in to close out the night.

Nestled within the pure joy of the song and jam itself was the debut of a new member in the “So/Slow Ready” family – “fast:slow,” a take on the song that is highly reminiscent of a DJ remix (inspired by LP Giobbi, perhaps). With Mitarotonda repeating lyrics over a constant arpeggiator and Ellis’ pulsating disco beat, this weaved its way from pure danceability into a joyous jam centred around a familiar descending lick before bursting back into “Empress,” a moment of ecstasy shared by the few thousand fans in attendance and band alike as they brought their show to a close.

Making the trek out to Crania, last night’s late festivities got underway with a raging set by Dogs In A Pile, keyboardist Jeremy Kaplan standing out in particular with some dizzying jazz piano runs early on. Mitarotonda and Anspach joined in for the final two songs (including a surprise encore), a cover of “Boogie On Reggae Woman” and Dogs original “Trunk Rum.”

Both Goose musicians were clearly having a ball on stage as they traded licks with the Dogs musicians, Mitarotonda’s huge day of collaborations leading to an ease with which he and guitarist Jimmy Law gelled on several strong harmonized runs.

Tycho brought day two of Viva El Gonzo to a close with an amazing DJ set, following up his live band performance on Thursday with a heavy hour that perfectly suited the 2 – 3 a.m. time slot.

One day remains in our Cabo adventure, and with so many Goose songs left on the table plus return sets from Thursday bands like Eggy and Andy Frasco, it’s sure to be an absolutely incredible conclusion to what has been one of the most special weekends and experiences many of us have ever had.

DJ Marb Menthols LOOMS!

A livestream of Goose’s sets is available for purchase via nugs.net.

Setlist (via ElGoose.net)

Set One: Arrow [1] -> Bob Don [2], Draconian Meter Maid > Seekers on the Ridge pt I > Seekers on the Ridge pt II, Iguana Song [3], SALT

Set Two: Atlas Dogs [4] -> Rockdale [4], Red Bird -> State Of The Art (A.E.I.O.U.), The Empress Of Organos [5] -> fast:slow -> The Empress Of Organos

Notes:

• [1] Unfinished.
• [2] With.
• [3] FTP.
• [4] With Taylor Goldsmith on guitar and vocals and Griffin Goldsmith on drums.
• [5] With Low Rider tease from Rick.