Goose has been together for over a decade, so the band is more than ready for overnight success.
The growing army of dedicated fans honking about this Connecticut-based group (now a quartet following a somewhat dramatic reduction in personnel) is louder than ever, so if you thought you could ignore yet another goofy-seeming band with long songs and a complex internal lore (what is “Goosemas”?), think again. Goose is clearly here to stay.
Just as being known as an heir to the Grateful Dead was a blessing and a curse for Phish in the ’90s, it’s too easy to say Goose, which has amassed a fiercely loyal following, is the new Phish. Co-headlining a short tour with Phish front man Trey Anastasio in late 2022, as well as a shared penchant for unexpected covers and releasing soundboard mixes and pro-shot videos of their shows for obsessive fan scrutiny, doesn’t aid in dispelling the myth — but Goose really is its own thing.
Goose has natural pop tendencies, mixing synthesizers and occasional Auto-Tune with heavy jams. Multi-instrumentalist Peter Anspach, who rocks a zany mustache and Where’s Waldo? glasses, is a warm figure who handles the crowdwork, teeing up Goose’s special weapon: Unlike the singers in so many other jam bands, Rick Mitarotonda, the group’s virtuosic lead guitarist, also has an absolutely gorgeous voice. Critic Steven Hyden has described their songs best: “They sound like potential hits that, onstage, happen to include ten-minute guitar solos.”
When we talked with Mitarotonda and Anspach (bassist Trevor Weekz and drummer Cotter Ellis sent their regards), they seemed well aware that their hard work has paid off. The group just headlined its first destination festival in Mexico and has already sold out a Madison Square Garden gig for later this summer. The release of their fourth studio album, Everything Must Go, has brought them to disparate places: from an interview on CBS Saturday Morning to a 79-minute improvised jam called “I’m only here for the zipline” (yes, a Tim Robinson reference) at the Luna Luna art installation in New York.
Though these are playful guys with, some may say, a dorky sense of humor, they maintain an “it’s all about the music” attitude. “The Sphere looks awesome,” Mitarotonda says when I ask if they’ve got a plan for a brass-ring concert experience. “But it’s also pretty sick just setting up in a field and playing under the stars.”
Funniest Goose song
Rick Mitarotonda: “Spirit of the Dark Horse.” It’s got this eerie, dark, haunting thing — but it’s also about a magical horse that saves people.
Peter Anspach: “Animal” too. You get to that chorus — “You’re an Animal!” The rhyming scheme is funny too.
RM: People take that one too seriously. Sometimes it’s like, “The lyrics suck.” And like … it’s just fun. It’s about monkeys.
Best song for noobs
RM: Depends on the noob! “Hungersite” probably. It seems like a somewhat accessible rock song. John Mayer talked about it on his radio show.
Most unexpected jam
RM: “Borne.” It was never intended as a big jam. What launches into exploratory territory is not something you can predict. You can’t force it, but things take on an energy that leads to a weird space, and that’s one that has gone deep. “A Western Sun” is another example. When we end a song and then launch from nothing, that’s when it becomes unique. We tend to enjoy that — we end but then keep playing and we’re in no-man’s-land. It’s liberating.
Goose song that best exploits Rick’s sexy voice
PA: “Slow Ready.”
RM: That was an earlier song, “So Ready,” that we slowed down, then changed some of the harmonic and melodic structure.
PA: I don’t necessarily prefer one or the other. But the slow one? A little sexier.
Song that best exploits Rick’s phenomenal guitar shredding
PA: I was recently checking out some of our shows from Philly last summer, and there is a “Tumble” where I was like, “This is definitely the craziest shit I’ve ever heard Rick play on guitar.” I was like, “This may be Rick’s best show.”
RM: The Mann “Tumble”?
PA: Yeah, the Mann “Tumble.”
RM: That won the Jam Bracket award. I still haven’t listened to it. Peter’s good at cataloguing all this in his brain — the ways we’re performing and developing. He’s got a good mind for that. I haven’t listened to it, though, because it’s a challenge. I find it hard to listen to myself, especially live stuff.
Best song to dance to
PA: “Thatch.” At Jazz Fest recently, I looked out and I don’t think I ever saw more people dancing. I don’t know why that song, but it’s a nice tempo.
RM: It’s a little slower than the typical dance tempo.
PA: Yeah, especially if you are out in the sun in daytime. Something like “Sinnerman” has a 129 BPM, and that’s always a dance party at a late-night set.
RM: That one [famously recorded by Nina Simone in 1965] is becoming a staple. It’s really fun to play.
Cover that gets the “most Goose” stamp
RM: We just did “Crosseyed and Painless” [a Talking Heads song frequently covered by Phish] with Brownie and Magner from Disco Biscuits, and we haven’t done that in so long. Afterwards, we were like, “This song really rules.” Fat Freddy’s Drop’s “Fish in the Sea” is another good one. I don’t know if either has the most Goose stamp, though.
PA: It might be “Sinnerman.”
RM: What’s your pick?
Vulture: Foster the People’s “Pumped Up Kicks.” It was a strong, short ditty, and now it’s a ten-minute rager.
RM: I could agree with that. That song rules. Hmm, what are some others?
PA: Are you opening the note?
RM: “I Would Die 4 U.”
PA: Yes.
RM: And “Shama Lama Ding Dong” [an R&B tune written for the movie Animal House]. That’s the answer. I mean, what even is “Shama Lama Ding Dong”? It’s one of our most played songs on Spotify.
Goose song another band should cover
PA: I would like to hear Dawes play a Goose song, but I don’t know which one. The challenge is now out there.
Best lessons learned from the Trey Anastasio Band–Goose co-headliner tour
RM: Trey’s work ethic, his energy, and how he’s always thinking about stuff is really inspiring. The funniest thing that stuck with me was at the first show in Portland, Maine, right out of the gate. We often think about our sets as evolving and telling a story; so we get offstage and he’s like, “All right, how’d the set go?” I was like, “It was good, we eased into it.” And he goes, “Hmm, I don’t really do that.” He just goes out there and, like, slaps you in the face. That’s his energy, his mentality of “Let’s fucking go.”
PA: It changed our approach, too.
RM: Night two, we came out so hot. We still like to be dynamic; it’s not all gas all the time. But his mentality as a foundational thing has stuck with us in a very good way. I’ll tell you, Trey popping into the solo after the second chorus on “Hungersite” at his first sit-in at Radio City Music Hall — it will never be more of a moment than that night. When he comes in with his tone? It’s like, Whoa. What is life?
Least “jam band” Goose song
PA: “Your Direction” on the new album.
RM: A song tells you what it wants to be. We just try to follow the call. The chorus of that song has been around for a long time — it goes back to a previous band. When we made the record, we wrote the verses and turned it into a complete song, just finding changes that felt appropriate. And now, it’s turned into a quick, little, I dunno, indie-rock song? Yacht rock?
PA: It’s a song!
Song that would be a massive mainstream hit if this were a righteous world
PA: “Hot Tea” as a No. 1 pop song is a hilarious vibe. I want kids at the frat party singing, “La dah da-da-dah dah.”
Best song to prove the haters wrong
PA: “Thatch” hits real hard and showcases the things we do well.
RM: It has some fuck-you energy.
PA: It’s a badass tune.
RM: “Seekers on the Ridge,” that whole suite, is something I’m pretty proud of. It weaves an interesting thread. It’s one of our more musically intricate things.
Jam that went sideways
RM: It’s so subjective. There have been times where we walked offstage like, Jesus Christ, you know? What just happened? We just couldn’t find anything; we were just dying out there. And then some people come back like, “That jam was sick!” It’s become apparent that there’s a certain class of people who enjoy the experience of hearing us grasping at straws. They want that “bottom dropped out, flailing” thing. But it’s really uncomfortable to be in that sometimes. Other times where the bottom’s dropped out and we’re flailing, it’s more of a freeing thing and we’re just floating. I guess the point is, whether it’s actually working or not, it’s not for us to say. There was a jam in, where was it, was it Bend, Oregon? Somewhere in Oregon, right?
PA: Eugene, the Eugene “Pancakes.”
RM: Ah, thank you. The first set, we felt a little disjointed. So we went out for the second set like, “Yeah, let’s go get ’em with this ‘Pancakes!!’” And man, we just wouldn’t give up. The experience was like “Nothing is working,” but I got stubborn and kept pushing, kept changing keys, new ideas, and there was no running away from feeling disconnected. I think I’m guilty sometimes of not throwing in the towel until it feels like we get our guy, you know? And it can sometimes result in a long-winded thing. But how we’re feeling doesn’t determine how people think. A lot of people really like that jam.
Song that deserves more love from fans
RM: “Dr. Darkness.” I loooove that song, but sometimes it feels like it’s just there at shows. You know, there have been some nights when I wasn’t feeling well, and the last thing I felt ready to do was to go play a rock show. But you have to do it anyway. Some nights when I was in that place, we opened with “Dr. Darkness” and it got me there. It can be cathartic.
Weirdest lyric
RM: “Iguana Song.”
PA: “An iguana’s in town / He’s gone to see his brothers / Atop a big rock / Laying on a sheepskin they got from his mother.”
RM: That’s a pretty good one!