The rain held off.

It was supposed to rain. There was even a chance of thunderstorms. Stupid humidity, huh? Is it the worst weather thingy or at least in the top 5? Eh, we’ll save that for another day.

But yes, the rain held off and in the parking lot of the PNC Bank Arts Center here at the Jersey Shore, a nice, little breeze weaved in and out of the cars and the collection of parents having themselves a fun night out and youngsters dabbling in the hippie lot scene. The Sunday of Labor Day Weekend is an extra special relaxed Sunday and you could feel that in the lot, during the trek up the hill to the gates, and while in the mildly frustrating long lines to enter the venue. It was easy living at its finest and even the slap of humidity that was felt upon entering the venue couldn’t dampen the mood. It could only dampen the back of your shirt.

That’s some weather humor for ya, kid.

Anyway, Goose was back at the Jersey Shore. Last summer, they did two successful nights over in Asbury Park, packing the Stone Pony Summerstage. A year later, they were moving up into the area’s shed, a jump from a venue that holds about 4,000 to about 17,000. The math was daunting because even if you were to double that 4 grand number, that only gets you to about 8,000 people and even someone as math-averse as me could tell that wrangling another 10,000 people to fill PNC felt like a big ask. Anyone who had even taken a passing glance at Ticketmaster in the days leading up to the show could see that a good amount of tickets were still available and yeah, I was curious to see what the turnout would end up being.

Perhaps it was the favorable weather or plans changing or just a general spirit of “eh, I’ll get tickets later,” but the place was pretty full. I don’t think it was sold out and definitely felt thinner than when we saw Dave Matthews Band earlier in the summer but I was pleasantly surprised. There was a healthy amount of people at the spaceship-looking venue in the shadow of the Garden State Parkway and okay, the next item I was interested in was how the band would do filling a bigger space. I know, I know. I’ve listened to the Forest Hills show. I know it’s possible, I know they can do it but I wanted to see it and hear it with my own eyes.

They did it. They looked and sounded like they belonged. Done and done. Not really much else you can ask from an up-and-coming band. You want to see if they can hang when they get their shot and Goose can hang.

Now, I still wonder what the next five years have in store for them. I wondered this last year at the Asbury shows and despite the strides they’ve made since then, it’s still one of those pesky, top-of-mind thoughts that you can’t really shake. Come Summer 2025, are they doing two nights at sheds like PNC or are they taking a run at doing their own festival, presumably somewhere on the East Coast, and thus negating the need for other East Coast shows on a summer tour? Or…and this seems unlikely but who knows…do they do something like take an opening slot for a bigger act, exposing themselves to a larger, new audience? I don’t know what act that would be, but it’s an interesting thought I guess.

If we’re handicapping it, I’d say a big summer tour is the clubhouse favorite, followed by a festival, and then the arena opener a distant third. Like a very distant third.

Hey, real quick, some thoughts on the show…

• The new drummer Cotter Ellis is a wild man. A real delightful lunatic. He’s basically three drummers in one, especially once he gets going. I was never a big fan of Jeff Arevalo playing a drum kit but now I’m super against it. It’s not needed and muddies the waters. Let Cotter cook.
• Percussionist Jeff Arevalo on second guitar makes sense. Do that more, Goose.
• I will say that I miss Ben Atkind’s snare hits. They had more power to them than Cotter’s and really anchored the band, especially when they got knee-deep into a jam. But I like Cotter and think he’s a fun fit.
• My wife said that Peter Anspach looks like a magician and as with most things, she’s not wrong. He does. But he’s also gotten really good at keys. So if we’re keeping score: looks like a magician, really good at keys.
• The second set will get more attention because it was only three songs, but the first set was solid and got better as it went along.

Okay, moving on

Speaking of sets and specifically, how they flow and their vibe, I wonder how much of how we view them has been crafted and dictated by how Phish does them. Phish obviously wasn’t the first to do two sets in the jam world and certainly won’t be the last but I do think they are general standard bearers, for better or worse. Phish tend to be almost workman-like in the first set and then let their hair down with the second. I was struck by how the first set with Goose had an all-business feel and to that point, how it kind of felt like a Phish first set. There weren’t really many jams beyond the Cotter-led “Draconian Meter Maid” going over seventeen minutes and the set closer, “SOS” topping sixteen minutes. Besides that, it felt like a very focused set, which I don’t think you can always say about Goose.

AND THAT’S FINE BY THE WAY.

Goose is Goose, Phish is Phish, etc. I’m not at all saying Goose needs to model their sets after Phish. No, no, no. I’m just curious if I’m the only one who processes set construction through a Phish lens.

Although, if we’re being honest, “Draconian Meter Maid” did have kind of a weird Phish song vibe to it. Just saying.

Now, that second set…

WAIT…I just feel the need to mention that the set break was almost forty minutes and that was long. I can admit to not being the best person to address this, what with my lack of patience and general disdain for waiting, but my dudes, it was a heck of a break. It kind of felt excessive to me and I don’t know, I just wish it was shorter. Twenty minutes would have been good. Twenty-five…sure. But anything more than that and I’m checking my watch, calculating how much we’re paying the babysitter, etc. I don’t know if that’s normal for Goose, but it’s not normal to me and my short attention span would kindly ask for a shorter set break going forward. K, thanks, Goose.

Okay, the second set. Well, I’ll just say that taking a forty-minute set break and then coming out for the second set with a new song is a ballsy move. The new song in question, “Big Modern!” had the following according to the notes I took:

• a Moe feel
• some balls, notably the heavy part
• a 70s rock vibe
• a “Money for Nothing” feel

The last one was echoed by someone on Twitter, so that’s how you know it’s true, even if we don’t call it Twitter anymore, but we all still call it Twitter because the new name is dumb.

“Big Modern!,” (great title by the way) stretched to almost forty minutes. Yes, almost as long as the aforementioned set break. It just kept going. You thought it was maybe done and then it wasn’t, then you thought that again and then again, it wasn’t and yeah, you thought that another time and what the eff, these dudes are still going, and now I’m checking the time and what the eff, are these crazy bastards going to do the unthinkable and play a one-song set?

No, they played three songs. One was about forty minutes, one was a mere eleven minutes and the last one, “Madhuvan,” was twenty-seven minutes. They played three songs in about 76 minutes.

That’s kind of nuts.

It’s kind of nuts in a good way for some and kind of nuts in potentially a frustrating way for others and therein lies my continuing mixed feelings about these Goose fellas. I really think they might jam too much. However, I don’t think that because I don’t like their jams. For the most part, I do. Not all of them, but most of them. I do think they can get a little repetitive and I do think too often they build, build, build, climax, and then start building again, a formula that can get old but again, I’m cool with the jams…for the most part.

Where I get tripped up with Goose and their jamming is that I like a lot of Goose songs. I have a stable of constants (“All I Need,” “Rockdale,” “Mr. Action,” “Tumble,” “Thatch” and “Animal” among others) and a handful of other tunes that make appearances amongst that first group from time to time. And for the most part, there aren’t any Goose songs I adamantly don’t like (“Red Bird” comes close.) The tricky part then comes when I get to a Goose show (which admittedly, doesn’t happen nearly as much as other people,) I’m stoked to see some of these tunes played live. Because I like ’em. I like some of them a lot. I don’t think it’s too wild of a thing to hope a band you really like plays songs you like when seeing that band live.

But with Goose, eh, we’ll see what happens. No promises, kid.

I also consider Goose to still be a fairly new band and I’m sure that on Sunday, it was a lot of people’s first Goose show. I can’t speak for them, but I could guess that for at least some of them, they were hoping to hear “Hungersite” or “Hot Tea.” Instead, they got a 40-minute jam off of a new song. WHICH IS COOL…albeit kind of also not cool only because time is not infinite. We live in a world of start and stop times. I once saw Phish play for seven hours, man. Goose would crush a seven-hour set. But seven-hour sets don’t grow on trees where as sets as long as an hour and a half do. Maybe it’s a time management issue but I guess I just wish Goose would be a little picky and choosy about when they’re going to go off on a really long jam. And then if they do, sweet…but back that shit up with four or five songs and then call it a day.

The jams or the songs is I think what this boils down to and the choices it requires of bands. It also then factors into the kind of experience fans are looking to have. I’m not so out of touch that I don’t get the appeal of all the jams. I just think I fall on the song’s side of the aisle and our side kind of got shafted Sunday night. Although the ending of the “Big Modern!” jam was sick and fierce and had the band getting a little heavy ‘n weird, which was a fun turn of events.

But still, it was a lot of jamming.

And that’s cool.

But it also might not be.

But it might be,

It depends I guess.

Or does it? Because it doesn’t seem to matter to Goose. They seem perfectly happy jamming the eff out for an hour instead of spending that hour playing a handful of times with maybe some casual jamming. So if anything, this is about me managing my expectations, and oof, we all love self-improvement. We all love finding new reasons to manage our own shit. Didn’t think I’d be coming away from a Goose show dipping into some loose self-improvement, but here we are.

Yeah, so in closing, the show was fun, the weather was nice, I got “Mr. Action,” I’m interested in a studio version of “Big Modern!” and I’ll definitely see Goose again. I’ll just make sure to stretch first.

Categories: Music

Tags: Goose, Jambands, Phish