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a few weeks ago,” Koenig told me, “and this time I was really struck by how each member has a strong, unique identity, and yet the whole feels indivisible.

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But, somehow, they managed to actually grow their audience during the lockdown, thanks to a series of clever live-streamed performances (such as 2020’s Bingo tour, when the band’s setlists were determined by drawing bingo balls printed with instructions like “20-minute jam”) and an uncanny knack for self-promotion.Īlong the way they’ve gained high-profile fans such as Ezra Koenig of Vampire Weekend, who tapped Goose last year to create a jammed-out version of the VW song “2021” that lasts (you guessed it) 20 minutes and 21 seconds. All of this has been achieved in spite of some potentially crippling setbacks, not the least of which was a pandemic that kept them off the road right as they were first achieving widespread exposure. This included the packed and rapturously received mid-week gig I caught in February at First Avenue, their first ever show in Minneapolis. Earlier this year, they played their first West Coast tour as headliners. Goose has already curated their own music festival in Virginia, featuring indie acts such as Hiss Golden Messenger, Dr. Two months after that, they’ll headline a concert (also sold out) at Red Rocks Amphitheatre in Colorado, preceded by two other amphitheater gigs in the area. In June, they will play two concerts at Radio City Music Hall in New York, one of which is already sold out. Last month, Goose played their first arena show, at Connecticut’s Mohegan Sun Casino, for their eighth annual Goosemas holiday show (postponed from December). Over time, however, it appears that the former group has exploded in number. Battle lines were immediately drawn: Fans saw them as the next big thing and detractors dismissed them as a Phish rip-off. The Peach Fest video has since been streamed more than 341,000 times - hardly viral numbers in the pop world, but enough to cause a sensation in the jam scene. Before long, I was checking for tour dates in my area. A Goose show sure looked like a lot of fun. Last (but certainly not least), there are the extra-musical aspects of the video - the sunshine, the trees, the plumes of pot smoke levitating above the festival audience, the mustaches. They sound like potential hits that, on stage, happen to include 10-minute guitar solos. (In 2020 - in accordance with jam-band law - Goose added a second percussionist, Jeff Arevalo, who like Mitarotonda and Atkind attended Boston’s Berklee College Of Music.) Their “tension and release” style of jamming is somewhat reminiscent of Phish, but Goose songs are also catchy and pop-friendly. To his left in the video is guitarist/keyboardist Peter Anspach, a bespectacled and perpetually smiling foil for the Zen-like Mitarotonda and the stoic bassist on stage right, Trevor Weekz, who locks in effortlessly with drummer Ben Atkind’s busy, jazz-inspired rhythms. Goose’s leader, guitarist Rick Mitarotonda, has a quiet charisma, undeniable chops, and - here’s a truly unique attribute in the jam world - a cool, commanding voice. The jam-band world isn’t exactly teeming with marquee names - more on that in a moment - so I immediately wondered: Why have I not heard of these guys before? They already seemed like, if not stars, then certainly up-and-comers demanding attention. The images are crisp and the sound is bouncy and warm. When I first saw it, I was struck immediately by how good it was from a technical perspective. I recommend watching the Peach Fest video for a primer. If your social media feed tilts away from Jam Twitter, Goose is probably still a mystery. belied a slow but steady rise that commenced in the mid-2010s. In that corner of Twitter, the takes came hot and heavy about a band whose overnight success story - sparked by a video of their star-making performance in July of 2019 at The Peach Music Festival in Scranton, Pa. You might not know what I’m talking about my social feed tilts toward what can only be classified as “Jam Twitter,” where debates about the merits of the most recent Phish show and full-blown arguments about whether Dead & Company plays too slow are in abundance. I just know that one day that summer I had never heard of them, and then the next day I heard about them constantly.

I don’t remember the first time I heard about Goose, a quintet from Connecticut that at the time was still a quartet. And then there was the sudden emergence of what might be the next great American jam band.

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The Trump era was still in full swing but the election was only one year away. People online were excited about Lana Del Rey’s Norman Fucking Rockwell. Once Upon A Time In Hollywoodwas in theaters. The summer of 2019 seems, in retrospect, like a simpler time.

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