After spending most of the month of June on the road checking off a number of its biggest venues to date, Connecticut quintet Goose returned home to the Tri-State Area on Saturday and Sunday for notable gigs at a pair of former tennis stadiums in New York (Forest Hills Stadium, 6/29/24) and New Haven (Westville Music Bowl, 6/30/24).
Following a Friday evening performance in Philadelphia featuring guest appearances by Blind Melon‘s Rogers Stevens (on “No Rain”) and Mt. Joy‘s Matt Quinn (on “California Magic”), Goose notched its largest ticketed crowd to date for the second night in a row on Saturday at Forest Hills Stadium, the former home of the U.S. Open which has found a lauded second act as a premier outdoor concert venue for the NYC market.
With the sellout at the 13,000-capacity stadium in picturesque Forest Hills, Queens, Goose—comprised of Rick Mitarotonda (guitar, vocals), Peter Anspach (keys, guitar, vocals), Trevor Weekz (bass), Jeff Arevalo (percussion), and Cotter Ellis (drums)—took yet another step in its rapid ascent through the NYC venue ranks: In less than five years’ time, the band has worked its way from small New York clubs like the 250-cap Mercury Lounge to larger rooms like Terminal 5 (3000 capacity) and Radio City Music Hall (6,000 capacity) to selling out one of the city’s largest outdoor venues.
Related: Goose Glides Through Sold-Out Southeast Run [Photos/Videos]
Goose took the stage as the grey cloud cover that had persisted all afternoon finally relented, allowing pockets of bright blues to beam out from behind tufts of white above and accenting the always surreal ambiance of a stadium tucked away in a quiet, quasi-suburban corner of the vast metropolis. After setting a lively tone with “Hot Tea”, “Lead Up”, “Turned Clouds”, and “Yeti”, the band called back to its first show of the year—an early-April test drive at The Capitol Theatre in Port Chester, NY—with a well-received rendition of “Hot Love & The Laze Poet”, the Vasudo deep cut that made its first Goose appearance that night at the Cap. A meditative cover of classic Prince-penned ballad “I Would Die 4 U” went on to tee up a “So Ready” set closer.
The band seemed to aim for big, sweeping sound and enveloping improvisation throughout the five-song second set as it moved through the Autumn Crossing suite (“Travelers” > “Elmeg The Wise”) and into a steadily ballooning take on “Thatch”. The two-piece percussion section filled the stadium as the set came to a powerful close with “726” > “Dripfield”, both of which showcased the big, dreamy, enveloping rumble that has become a hallmark of the group’s sound. “Give It Time”, another recently reintroduced Vasudo tune, showed its promise as a future encore staple as the crowd clapped along in unison for one final New York number. The rain that had threatened all day to make an appearance finally began to fall just as the musicians took their final bows.
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That precipitation in the area went on to push back the start time of the following evening’s show at New Haven’s Westville Music Bowl, the former site of the Pilot Pen tennis tournament-turned-Connecticut concert hotspot, but a wet forecast (i.e. “looks like rain today”) couldn’t dampen the band’s tour-closing CT homecoming (or, “oh, what a day to be living”). Unlike Forest Hills, a new landing spot for Goose, Westville has been a welcoming home to the band since launching in the aftermath of the pandemic, first as a socially-distanced venue and later as a scalable platform for the group’s growing popularity.
By the time an appropriate “The Empress of Organos” rang out through the stadium to close Sunday’s second set, the landmark weekend, and the milestone summer tour as a whole, the band had already offered up more than a handful of New Haven highlights including a particularly strong “Rockdale” during set one and a lively “Pancakes” stacked around a cover of Moniker‘s “Milestone 2 (Skux Life)” in set two. With time for one more, Goose borrowed a tune from Fatboy Slim, “Praise You”, for the evening’s encore. The local die-hards gathered in the audience roared their hearty approval in kind.
Goose – “Rockdale” [Pro-Shot] – New Haven, CT – 6/30/24
Following a break from touring during July and August, Goose will hit the road once again in early September to begin its 2024 fall tour with multi-night stints in Boston, MA (9/2–9/4), Saratoga Springs, NY (9/6–9/7), Chicago, IL (9/11–9/13), and Missoula, MT (9/19–9/20), a late-September jaunt through the Pacific Northwest and California, and more. View a full list of upcoming Goose tour dates here.
Below, check out full-show audio, setlists, and a selection of photos from the Goose shows at Forest Hills Stadium and Westville Music Bowl including a gallery from New Haven via Charlie Francis.
Goose’s summer tour is available to stream exclusively via nugs.net. [Editor’s Note: Live For Live Music is a nugs affiliate. Ordering your nugs subscription or purchasing a download via the links on this page helps support our coverage of the world of live music. Thank you for reading!]
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Goose | Forest Hills Stadium | Queens, NY | 6/29/24
2024/06/29 Forest Hills, Queens, NY by Goose
Goose | Westville Music Bowl | New Haven, CT | 7/1/24
2024/06/30 Westville Music Bowl, New Haven, CT by Goose
Setlist [via elgoose.net]: Goose | Forest Hills Stadium | Queens, NY | 6/29/24
Set One: Hot Tea, Lead Up, Turned Clouds, Yeti, Hot Love & The Lazy Poet, I Would Die 4 U [Prince], So Ready
Set Two: Travelers > Elmeg The Wise, Thatch, 726 > Dripfield
Encore: Give It Time
Show Notes: This was the band’s biggest headlining show to date.
Setlist [via elgoose.net] | Goose | Westville Music Bowl | New Haven, CT | 7/1/24
Set One: Butter Rum, Mr. Action, Elizabeth, Rockdale
Set Two: Pancakes > Milestone 2 (Skux Life) [Moniker] -> Pancakes, Everything Must Go, This Old Sea > The Empress Of Organos
Encore: Praise You [Fatboy Slim]
Show Notes: Milestone 2 (Skux Life) was played for the first time since August 18, 2022 (146 shows). Praise You was played for the first time since February 12, 2022 (184 shows).
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