Goose, Stuart Bogie Soundtrack A Carnival Of Priceless Art & Immersive Oddities At 'Luna Luna' [Review/Videos]

Goose on Tuesday lured fans into the surreal world of Luna Luna: Forgotten Fantasy—a revived “art amusement park” from the late 1980s featuring rides, attractions, and other works of art designed by visionary artists like Jean-Michel Basquiat, Keith Haring, Kenny Scharf, Salvador Dalí, David Hockney, Roy Lichtenstein, Arik Brauer, Sonia Delaunay, and more—for a unique event tied to the rollout of the band’s upcoming fourth LP, Everything Must Go.

But before we talk about Goose, we have to talk about Luna Luna.

The brainchild of Austrian artist and curator André Heller, Luna Luna was conceived as a way to bring imagination, joy, and play back to everyday life in a post-World War II Europe still scarred by fascism. He recruited more than 30 of the most influential artists of his time to contribute to his “fairground of sensations,” which opened to the public in an outdoor space in Hamburg, Germany in the summer of 1987 with a Ferris Wheel designed by Basquiat, a chair swing ride designed and painted by Kenny Scharf, two carousels (one by Keith Haring, one by Arik Brauer), a mirrored geodesic dome courtesy of Salvador Dalí, a wedding chapel by Heller himself, and other assorted interactive elements.

Once the initial Luna Luna exhibition closed, its treasures were forgotten in storage in Texas for nearly 37 years. It wasn’t until 2022 that the carnival’s collection of pieces—filling 44 shipping containers in all—was transported to California and painstakingly reassembled. After a run in Los Angeles, the reconstructed Luna Luna eventually made its way to New York, where it’s currently on display at The Shed at New York, NY’s Hudson Yards through Sunday, March 16th.

The cumulative effect of Luna Luna‘s many component works of priceless art is undeniable. To stand in that space is to feel the weight of artistic talent and historic creativity that went into its every detail. To wander through its oddities and attractions unsure of what’s around the next corner is to realize the vision Heller had when he first created Luna Luna nearly four decades ago. The feeling of wonder it gives you is timeless.

Since the earliest rumblings about Everything Must Go from the Goose camp, the album rollout has focused on its Brian Blomerth-designed, Where’s Waldo-like cover art depicting a densely populated, hyperactive, carnival-like scene featuring hordes of strange and alluring cartoon characters.

As Goose guitarist/vocalist Rick Mitarotonda explained when the album was announced, that lively artwork is meant to illustrate the band’s thoughts on this material and this moment in its story. “These songs all come from different times and places in a way that captures a part of the journey of the band. [The album] moves through time for us, but not in a tidy, linear way. Like the band, it’s okay for things to feel more like a landscape sometimes and less like a singular cohesive statement. It mixes different moods and ideas and characters. … The idea was to throw everything at this project. To wipe the slate clean.”

“The through line,” Rick added, “is that each piece is part of that journey and that everyone is welcome to the party.”

Goose – Everything Must Go – Album Cover Art by Brian Blomerth
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Knowing Goose’s mindset surrounding Everything Must Go and the history and sentiments behind the exhibit, Luna Luna—a collection of disparate works united by a common objective of inspiring imagination—was a clever venue for this particular soiree. In the same vein, Goose was appropriately reverent to the Luna Luna ethos at its Everything Must Go Experience.

While the event may have looked like an album release party for Everything Must Go on paper, Goose didn’t actually play anything from the album during its performance. Sure, attendees could wander through nooks and crannies of the exhibition where vinyl snippets were being played, or listen to producer/mix engineer Abe Seiferth sampling stems and sounds from the LP, or interact with immersive theater performers scattered around the space dressed as the various characters on the album cover (including the band members themselves, hidden behind animal masks and costumes), but Everything Must Go itself was largely absent throughout the night.

Instead, Mitarotonda, Peter Anspach (keys, guitar), Trevor Weekz (bass), and Cotter Ellis (drums)—with help from revered New York multi-instrumentalist and composer Stuart Bogie—celebrated their “untidy,” “non-linear,” “landscape”-like new album in this charmingly scattershot “art amusement park” by following Luna Luna‘s lead: Largely obscured from view, facing either other on a simple, in-the-round stage, they allowed the wonders around them to guide their collective imagination for 75 minutes of experimental improvisation.

Ellis and Weekz often set the tone throughout the session, pushing the sound in varying stylistic directions. Peter Anspach mostly settled into a textural role on keys, while Mitarotonda occasionally layered in whisps of vocoder-assisted lyrics—lyrics reportedly sourced from messages fans wrote in a guest book earlier in the evening.

Bogie’s contributions were crucial throughout his extended sit-in, adding depth and ethereal allure to each passage on saxophone and clarinet. As the set went on, the different focal points of the Luna Luna space sprang to life in succession, their revolving lights and painted appendages adding equal parts beauty and eeriness to the display.

You could probably point out a number of instances when someone would hint at a familiar melody (one particular “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” snippet from Bogie comes to mind), but the ensemble seemed to actively exit such spaces as soon as they realized they were there. The result was something much closer to one of Bogie’s regular avant-garde jazz gigs at intimate New York clubs like Nublu or The Sultan Room than it was to the groove-focused rock that Goose will bring to its Madison Square Garden headlining debut this summer.

It was ambient. It was weird. It was just what André Heller might have ordered for this show—something to appropriately score the surreal magic of Luna Luna—while remaining connected to the landscape of Everything Must Go-era Goose. The entire performance felt less like Goose improvising a “Goose jam” and more like the Goose trying to feel out the soundtrack for this point in time and space—even as big changes and developments continued to take place before their eyes. That‘s the Everything Must Go Experience.

Check out a selection of photos and videos from the Goose Everything Must Go Experience at Luna Luna: Forgotten Fantasy below.

Everything Must Go, the fourth full-length studio release from Goose, is due to arrive via No Coincidence Records on April 25th. Pre-save the album on digital platforms or pre-order your vinyl copy today. Goose is also preparing to head out on its extensive Everything Must Go Tour. Find ticketing details and a list of upcoming Goose tour dates here.