On the heels of the announcement of the band’s first-ever European tour, Goose pulled into Eugene, OR to play the McDonald Theatre on Tuesday. The show featured just ten songs, each jammed out past the ten-minute mark with the exception of the traditional “Peggy-O”, which clocked in at nine and a half minutes.
After leading off with the Peter Anspach tune “The Whales” from Goose’s most recent album, Dripfield, the band wasted no time getting funky, following the opener up with “Jive I” from the band’s very first album, Moon Cabin. “Mr. Action”, a newer and as yet unrecorded song was up next and dedicated by Peter Anspach to the Goose crew that make the increasingly larger and more complex touring machine run smoothly every night.
Goose – “The Whales”, “Jive I” – 4/25/23
One of the elements of creativity that fans love about Goose is the way the band tinkers with song arrangements such that the same song might be rendered as a reggae tune one night and a driving, ’80s-style indie tune the next. Recently, the song “Borne” has been mostly played as a speedy rocker, but on this night, Goose took the song back to its Dripfield roots and played it in its original slow arrangement. The first set then came to a close with Rick Mitarotonda’s classic, true tale of the bar and music venue “Rockdale”.
Rocker “The Empress of Organos” can often be found as a show closer or encore, but Tuesday the band saw fit to get the crowd moving by jamming it out as the second set opener. “Empress” reached psychedelic exploratory heights before the band brought it back down and the whole audience joined them in signing, “We know you think that you’re powerful but we’ve got the love and rhythm / You say, it looks like rain today, but we say, Oh, what a day to be living!”
“Rosewood Heart” then followed and brought the energy into a quieter, sweeter space before morphing into a beautiful and touching rendition of the traditional ballad “Peggy-O”, popularized by the Grateful Dead and last played by Goose with Bob Weir at Dead & Company‘s Playing in the Sand festival in Mexico in January. It was a fitting tribute to the area that was home to Ken Kesey and the Merry Pranksters decades ago. The second set then closed with fan favorite “Arcadia”, which clocked in, as did several other tunes, at well over 20 minutes.
After a brief break, the band returned to bring us full circle with Peter Anspach’s “White Lights”. Leaving the McDonald Theatre, the Eugene audience was reminded that while you can “never trust a prankster,” Goose can always be trusted to deliver a mind-blowing performance of epic proportions.
Listen to full-show audio via Goose’s Bandcamp and check out a gallery of photos below. Goose tour continues with two sold out shows at The Warfield in San Francisco. For a full list of upcoming tour dates and tickets, visit the band’s website.
Goose – McDonald Theatre – Eugene, OR – 4/25/23 [Full Audio]
Setlist [via El Goose]: Goose | McDonald Theatre | Eugene, OR | 4/25/23
Set 1: The Whales, Jive I, Mr. Action, Borne, Rockdale
Set 2: The Empress Of Organos, Rosewood Heart > Peggy-O, Arcadia
Encore: White Lights
Next week, Goose will head to New Orleans, LA to headline both nights of Daze Between New Orleans alongside Tank and the Bangas, Lawrence, Neal Francis, George Porter Jr. & Runnin’ Pardners, David Shaw, Eggy, Melt, Honey Island Swamp Band, and more. Single-day and two-day tickets are now on sale here.
Daze Between New Orleans is part of Live For Live Music‘s extensive Fest by Nite event series during the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival, taking place from Friday, April 8th through Sunday, May 7th, 2023. In addition to the two-day Daze Between Festival, the full Fest by Nite series features 14 eclectic late-night shows around the city to keep Jazz Festers dancing late into the night. See below for a full lineup of Fest by Nite. For tickets and more information, head here.
