The band opened set one with “Rockdale” and “MEDIA,” easing the crowd in before “Your Direction” and a hypnotic take on Future Islands’ “Peach” started pulling the night into deeper, more locked-in territory. “Dustin Hoffman” kept that momentum building, and the set-closing “Good2B” into “Arrow” was a genuine highlight, the kind of extended, exploratory playing that makes Goose one of the best rock bands working today. Rick Mitarotonda’s guitar work throughout had that rare quality of sounding both effortless and completely absorbing, the kind of playing that has a way of hypnotizing an entire crowd without anyone quite realizing it’s happening.
Set two is where the night became something else entirely. “Hungersite” flowed straight into “Creatures,” the band’s most-played song for a reason, and the Greek Theatre crowd was fully enthralled, dancing without pause as Cotter Ellis and Trevor Bass locked into a groove that just kept building. “Red Bird” into “The Empress of Organos” gave the set its most raw, emotionally open stretch of the night, before a cover of Jim James’s “State of the Art (A.E.I.O.U.)” closed things out with a strange, beautiful gravity. The encore, a joyfully loose run through “ShamaLamma Ding Dong,” sent the crowd out on an absolute high, the perfect final note for a set list that felt built exactly for the fans who came out that night.
What makes Goose’s live show so special is how much room they give themselves to wander and how completely a crowd trusts them to do it. Peter Anspach’s keys and guitar work wove in and out of the songs with real telepathy, and the whole band played like a group that’s been building this language together for years, because they have. There’s a reason their shows draw the kind of devotion usually reserved for bands decades further into their careers.
Walking out of the Greek Theatre that night, it was hard not to feel like something rare had just happened. This was a night to remember, the kind of show that reminds you why you keep chasing live music in the first place. Goose’s Summer Tour 2026 keeps rolling on, and if they’re playing anywhere near you, do not miss it. Few bands in rock right now can hypnotize a crowd quite like this one.
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