American band Goose kicked off its first ever European tour on Friday night in front of an intimate crowd at Le Trabendo in Paris, France. Goose’s journey to this point has been nothing short of surreal, and the fact that the group’s celebrated 2022 Radio City Music Hall performance was streaming on United’s transcontinental flight only underscored that point to the fans who made the trip.
Ahead of the trip across the pond, the band had logged 82 live shows in 2023 in a variety of theaters, amphitheaters, and major festivals, while the highly anticipated, two-night, arena-sized Goosemas celebration at the Hampton Coliseum looms large on Goose’s December schedule. Despite the band’s rapid growth, however, these twelve European/U.K. shows are unique in their scale, serving as the smallest and most intimate headlining shows for Goose since pre-COVID times.
The path to the 700-person capacity Parisian club took concert goers through the gorgeous Parc de Villette and past the Paris Philharmonic before arriving at the red, Lego-like structure in the urban woods. The interior of the multi-layered club has a spiral effect of sorts, the room swirling towards the middle with low ceilings, a gradient floor, and multiple levels for great sight lines including a sign with an arrow “les meilleures places sont la,” (translation: the best place is here).
One of the most exciting parts of a European tour is, well, being in Europe, and many Americans made the trip across the pond for some or all of Goose’s European tour. While the crowd felt largely familiar, there were several handfuls of French nationals in attendance, as well, though at least one French-looking attendee, a man in a beret spotted sipping an espresso at the venue bar shortly before showtime, was confirmed to be card-carrying American/Goose percussionist Jeff Arevalo.
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Goose took the small, cramped stage less than an hour after the schedule 7:00 p.m. door time and got started with a sprightly take on “Me & My Uncle”, a song popularized by another notable American outfit, the Grateful Dead. The band’s first rendition of the John Phillips-penned tune in 155 shows (LTP 1/27/20) showed no evidence of overseas jitters from either Goose nor its production team, the sound was dialed into every nook and cranny and Andrew Goedde’s lights swirled from the stage to the club’s low ceilings for the opener.
The band settled into its first Euro jam early in the proceedings with 20+ minutes of slow, melodic “All I Need” exploration in the two-slot, Goedde now utilizing a rainbow curtain of light in front of the band to great effect as guitarist Rick Mitarotonda explored a variety of blissful soundscapes and multi-instrumentalist Peter Anspach patiently hammered out chords on his Nord en route to the night’s first white-light peak. Tight versions of “Mr. Action” and “Turbulence & The Night Rays” sandwiched “The Whales”, Anspach’s only vocal of the opening frame. A dual-throttle “Drive”, powered by Rick and Peter’s guitars as well as the savage rhythms of Ben Atkind and Arevalo, veered off into “Bob Don” before returning to “Drive” to close the set.
The band returned for the second set in record time—just sixteen minutes!—before “Madhuvan” kicked off a jam-heavy, four-song set. Finding its legs quickly, “Madhuvan” explored a darker sonic space reminiscent of a Spanish-style jam that steadily built behind the thundering bass bombs of Trevor Weekz. “Red Bird” followed, the room swathed in appropriate hues as a second consecutive 20+ minute song ensued.
Seizing opportunity is what life is all about and whether one was on the stage or in the audience, none amongst us will ever forget what it was like to be in that tiny Parisian club in that time and place, nor what it took to get there. As its lyrics—“Go everywhere, feel everything”—suggest, “A Western Sun” poignantly summarized what we were all feeling.
Everyone got have one last chance to sing their feelings from the top of their lungs as “The Empress Of Organos” wound up the hour-long set precisely at the 10:30 curfew. Oh, what a day—or two weeks—to be living, indeed. Très bien!
Goose tour continued in Cologne on Saturday before heading to Amsterdam on Tuesday. nugs.net subscribers can access free livestreams of Goose’s ongoing European tour. For a full list of upcoming dates, head here. Below, check out photos, videos, and a full setlist from the Goose Europe tour opener in Paris.
Goose – “Me & My Uncle” (John Phillips) – 11/3/23
[Video: spaceodyssee2000]
Goose – “All I Need” – 11/3/23
[Video: Goldilox92]
Goose – “Drive” > “Bob Don” > “Drive” – 11/3/23
[Video: spaceodyssee2000]
Setlist [via elgoose.net]: Goose | Le Trabendo | Paris, France | 11/3/23
Set One: Me & My Uncle [1], All I Need [2], Mr. Action > The Whales, Turbulence & The Night Rays > Drive > Bob Don > Drive
Set Two: Madhuvan, Red Bird > A Western Sun, The Empress Of Organos
[1] John Phillips, popularized by the Grateful Dead
[2] Slow, melodic version
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