Show Review - Goose 8/19/26 Seattle, WA

Goose arrived in Seattle last night to continue their West Coast leg of summer tour, making their debut at the cavernous WaMu Theater alongside Greensky Bluegrass for a crowd-pleasing Wednesday night show – great flow throughout, but a distinct lack of adventurous jamming for the majority.

Kicking off the night, Greensky delivered their first of two opening sets of the week in fine form, the quintet playing around an hour of toe-tapping music that displayed their polished vocal harmonies and musicianship to a receptive crowd. Their lighting director utilized the big Goose rig for some really cool and different patterns, and I’m curious to see how their set in Bend tomorrow acts differently in broad daylight versus a dark room.

Goose took the stage with “Feel It Now,” multi-instrumentalist Peter Anspach getting the ball rolling with some bouncy dance vibes for the song’s second consecutive show-opening appearance. Setting the tone with both nimble play and smooth transitions, the band eschewed the typical ending as guitarist Rick Mitarotonda steered them into the beginning of “Animal.”

“Mr. Action” notably featured an Anspach organ solo in lieu of the usual turn on piano, a nice deviation from the norm that highlighted his great playing before Mitarotonda’s usual flaming-hot turn around the song. “Your Direction” and “Bloodbuzz Ohio” continued the crowd-favourite song selection before the standout jam of the set (and night) emerged in the first “SALT” since MSG in June.

Breaking the longest gap in between performances since 2024, the band quickly opened up the fast-paced jam thanks to excellent and fluid work on the low end by bassist Trevor Weekz. Drummer Cotter Ellis propelled things at a steady pace as Anspach introduced a tense descending progression, toying with that briefly before returning to the usual charging tones.

Mitarotonda augmented his tone with some harmonized Whammy effects, adding an off-kilter sound that Anspach matched with some jazzy piano chords. A new repeated descending pattern akin to Phish’s “Tweezer” briefly emerged before the guitarist cooled things off and began to morph the jam into a Type II space.

Weekz pushed for a modulation as the intensity of the improv was stripped back, Anspach going for some minimalist textural tones while Mitarotonda moved into a familiar, uplifting progression – the always-reliable 3/10/22 “Rockdale”-style bliss. Ellis got even quieter while keeping his quick tempo up, leaving ample space for the dreamlike keyboard textures to swirl underneath Mitarotonda’s reverb and delay-soaked leads.

Cultivating that emotional major mode, things began to build as Ellis deviated from his straight-ahead propulsion into more fluid, circular play that is his signature. Anspach’s gentle Rhodes provided a soft bed as things spaced out to near silence, the jam’s energy gradually ramping up again as Mitarotonda pushed things into heavy “Bloodbuzz” teases. Building from there, Ellis toyed with dynamics in a cool stop/start motif, the momentum continuing strongly for a while before the band eliminated part of the progression and stuck to some heavy, dark riffing. Descending into near-madness, the chaotic play was really driven by Weekz for a while before Mitarotonda open-strummed the band back into “SALT” proper and a ripping conclusion to the song.

“Give It Time” wrapped the first set for its first appearance on the West Coast, sending us into the break on a nice singalong note.

The second set kicked off with a cool take on the “Creatures” intro, continuing the 2026 trend of some extra mustard and noodling around before jumping right into the song. Similar to Toronto and a couple of other recent versions, Goose opted to skip the final chorus and extend the improv out of the spacey interlude space – though not in a “Dragonfly” direction this time.

Building into a soaring peak not unlike recent takes on “A Western Sun,” Ellis’ driving beat set the stage for clean, conversational interplay between the rest of the band. After the early apex was achieved, things cooled off into a nice transitional space as Mitarotonda and Anspach beautifully shared musical ideas in a more gentle fashion.

Mitarotonda activated a cool echo-y delay effect for some extra background texture ahead of a silky segue into “Rockdale,” emerging into the funk of the song gradually and in an atypical way. Full of extra mustard, this relatively compact version reached a huge peak at Ellis’ double-time urging, a nice Type 1.5 zone wrapping the tune.

“Slow Ready” continued the set and was an odd choice given (in my opinion) the need for a big jam vehicle, though the typical synth arpeggiator jam gave way to an insane, sprawling version of “Tomorrow Never Knows” before too long. The Hypergoontz reared its head last night as Anspach dialled in some sequencer loops.

The multi-instrumentalist was easily the star of this one, bolstering Mitarotonda’s crazy sauced-out play with some amazing guitar textures of his own, throwing in sparser clouds of texture and also heavy funk riffing. The two guitarists linked up on a repeating pattern as Ellis delved into the first of several builds, eventually unleashing some crazed “vampire disco”-style Goontz before returning to conclude “Slow Ready.” The band continues to excel at this style of jamming, and doesn’t seem to have any plans to slow down any time soon. Anspach stuck around on guitar for the re-emergence of the “Slow” jam, harmonizing with some of Mitarotonda’s riffs beautifully to add a nice extra touch.

A quick “Thatch” closed the set due to the impending curfew – an unfortunate occurrence as usual due to what could have happened had the band had more time to explore the space. “POP” made its debut in the encore and immediately demonstrated its power as a five-minute banger, closing the show on a raucous high note for what I hope is not the last time in this slot – definitely beats another “Love Light” or “Don’t Do It” every time.

Goose continues their Pacific Northwest run with two nights in Bend tomorrow and Saturday, with Greensky and Buffalo Traffic Jam opening each night respectively. Fingers are crossed that we see some commitment to extended improv a la Frost “Madhuvan” alongside the tight, high-energy play of the last few shows! Tune in live or on replay to all upcoming shows exclusively with a nugs subscription.