Review: Goose gave fans a three hour jam last night at Arizona Financial Theatre

Goose played a three-hour set at Arizona Financial Theater on Wednesday night to a packed house supporting their new album, Everything Must Go.

After interviewing drummer Cotter Ellis last week, I did a deep dive into the band’s catalog. I’ll admit my musical taste is on the heavier, dirtier side of the playlist, but this was the cleansing that my ears did not know they needed. The first song I listened to was “Hungersite,” and I was all in.

Once the intro sounds started, the crowd came to life at the show, and calls of band members’ names started ringing out.

Peter Anspach (keyboards, guitars, vocals) greeted the crowd in his customary welcome. The band started into “Hot Love & the Lazy Poet”. The fans knew every word Rick Mitarotonda sang, and I’m sure the band could hear them being belted out.

The rhythm section, featuring Cotter Ellis and Trevor Weeks (bass, vocals), was in a groove from the start. To call Goose great musicians seems like an understatement; they are fluid, expert players. The crowd was riding on every note, and I was really starting to understand the appeal of seeing a Goose show.

I talked to some fans during intermission, Jordan and Kyle. Both are golf pros from Chicago, and they said they travel together to as many shows as possible. I was caught off guard by them stating their “show count,” not knowing this is common when a Goose fan meets another. It’s a way of saying just how big of a fan you really are. They have been to over 30 shows.

Another fan named Mandy, who has seen Goose three times in a few months, said, “You never know what songs they are going to play and how they will be played. “It could be a tempo change, it could go from an alt-rock sound to a more bluesy sound; you just never know.”

They may also play a song that they won’t play on another show during the tour. It’s part of the excitement that the fans look forward to. In all honesty, to me, the songs do carry on, but that’s the jam band appeal, and for all three hours, I got it. To get lost in the sound, feel connected, and be together as a big, glorious mass of dancing people is part and parcel of the ‘jam band’ experience, and I highly recommend it.

Set 1
Hot Love & the Lazy Poet
Turned Clouds
Time to Flee
The Whales
Seekers on the Ridge pt.1
Seekers on the Ridge pt.2
Hungersite

Set 2
Wysteria Lane
Tomorrow Never Knows
Slow Ready
Dripfield

Encore
The Way It Is ( Bruce Hornsby and the Range cover)

A few more photos from the show: