American improvisational rock band Goose is in Oregon this weekend as part of a national tour, performing at McMenamin’s Edgefield Amphitheater near Portland on Sunday, September 22nd at 6:30pm, and at Cuthbert Amphitheater in Eugene on Tuesday, September 24th at 7:30pm. Tickets are still available at Vivid Seats and Stub Hub, at a variety of prices starting at around $50-60.
Hailing from Connecticut, Goose is comprised of Rick Mitarotonda on vocals and guitar, Peter Anspach on vocals, keyboards and guitar, Trevor Weeks on bass, Jeff Arevalo on vocals, percussion and drums, and Cotter Ellis on drums, and released their debut album in 2016. They have earned the loyalty of their fans with their continued touring, and around 2020 they began to gain popularity as a must-see live band, with many fans excited to rekindle the tradition of following the band on tour.
“Our band was starting to pick up steam just before the pandemic hit,” Rick Mitarotonda said over the phone earlier this week, “and then things started to change for us. It was a funny development, situationally. We didn’t stop working during the pandemic. We started making videos, we started doing drive-in shows, we’ve grown so much over the last two years. Since then, we’ve done our best to keep moving forward as a band…continue to grow, evolve, work on music, and enjoy the privilege of being able to do that.”
Although the band is accustomed to recording and releasing albums both live and in the studio, Mitarotonda makes sure to maintain the habit of improvising while performing, for the audience and for themselves. The band’s style, reminiscent of the improvisational bands of the 1960s and 1970s, reflects a general wave of cultural nostalgia revival, unburdened by genre classifications or setlist constraints.
“Improvisation in my sets varies, but I do it a lot,” he explained. “When you’re improvising or jamming, it’s easy to get caught up in chasing something, so I try to stay mindful of that. At the same time, my intention is to not be too conscious of it and get into a flow state. At least that’s the goal, but sometimes it doesn’t happen. Sometimes it does.”
As for what audiences can expect from Goose’s live shows and recorded albums, Mitarotonda told me there will be lots of little differences to be found — from changes in song form, mood and versions to changing the set list every night, so no two shows, or albums, will turn out the same.
“Being creative with as many aspects as we can functionally allows us to approach the show without being obsessed with what any particular show is going to be,” he said. “We’re all approaching the show in pretty much the same way — some things we can control, some things we can’t. At the end of the day, we’re riding the wave just like everyone else, so it’s exciting.”
Goose will perform this weekend at McMenamin’s Edgefield Amphitheatre on Sunday, September 22, and Eugene’s Cuthbert Theatre on Tuesday, September 24. Read our full interview with Goose’s Rick Mitarotonda below.
Through a special arrangement, if you are purchasing tickets through Vivid Seats for the first time, you can use the special discount promo code “Oregon20” at checkout to save $20 on any order of $200 or more for the event you plan to attend.
Havin: Goose has really become popular lately, what was it like making music in the pandemic era and how was that process different to now?
Mitarotonda: I think it actually helped us in a lot of ways, because our scene was pretty much on the rise, so to speak. Before the summer of 2020, our schedule was really out of hand, flying around to multiple festivals around the country every weekend. Looking back, I think that would have really drained us. So I think the timing was good and it helped us stay more grounded. We had more time to be at home together and not constantly traveling, performing, working on music, working with bands and crews. Especially the Bingo tour in June 2020 brought a bigger crew and new relationships were forged. It really strengthened our foundation for what followed.
Do you think that helped you get used to it?
Yes, yes. It helped us to stay more grounded during the period of growth. Exponential growth can often be disruptive and destabilizing, so having a moment of calm, perhaps prompted by a global pandemic, was helpful for us.
What is the band’s typical process for writing and recording music?
It varies, and philosophically speaking, I believe that there are different ways that songs come about. There are a few people who write songs. For example, Peter writes songs. I write songs. And there’s another guy I write songs with, who’s my best friend and longtime songwriting partner. There are different categories of origins of where songs come from, some of which are that I look up to previous generations of bands, like the Grateful Dead or The Band, where multiple songwriters contributed to a larger whole.
Recording is also a case by case thing. The first few records I put out were very DIY. I did pretty much all the editing and wrote most of the material on those two records and had someone else do the mixing. On our third album, “Dripfield,” we started writing other songs more. The songs we’re working on now are a mix of different opinions in the writing.
Next question is about the Grateful Dead. How do you feel about being compared to iconic bands like The Dead, The Band and Phish?
You know, these comparisons are inevitable. We consider these bands and people our ancestors, it’s like a lineage that we grew up with. It’s the music that I grew up with, it’s in our DNA in a way. The band we get compared to most is Phish, and rightly so; they were a big influence on us.
What do you think about the term jam band?
I think there might be a more eloquent way to say it, but we’re definitely a jam band. At the end of the day, we jam a lot, and we’re a band, so we’re a jam band. I’ve always had a hard time pinning it down strictly to a genre, because over time, the styles of music have become more and more intermingled. I feel like that’s a testament to this era and music, or the age of the internet. Everyone can be exposed to whatever they want at any time. But back in the day, there was more of a barrier to exposure to different formats, and you had to at least go to a record store and buy it. But now, everything is available at your fingertips. So the line between genre and what it is is becoming more and more blurred. I’ve definitely been influenced a lot by modern indie folk music lately.
How do you decide on the different set lists for each show?
Typically Peter does his homework on what’s on the table, what’s been played the past few nights, and rolls out as much variety as possible. He puts together groups of material, prepares them, and then about 30 minutes before the show, he works with what’s prepared. Sometimes we discuss it, but usually we put the set list together as we feel like it. You know, we find that if we start writing the set list too far in advance, we end up changing it and it gets too worked up in our heads. Writing it right before the show helps us not overthink it.
You’ve spent a lot of time on tour, and you’re currently in the middle of it – how much of the year do you usually spend on the road, and can you describe a typical day while on tour?
How often we tour is hard to say because it’s a bit chaotic with breaks, festivals, etc… it’s all mixed up. Sometimes it feels like we’re always working. This year we’ve only had about 4 months of decent touring, but we didn’t tour for the first half of the year because of changes in the band members.
Some days on tour, when we’re in cooler areas, we’ll go for walks, get outside, exercise, eat good food. We usually try to have some kind of balance while having fun, so we’re always trying to find the right way to do that when we’re on tour.
How has traveling influenced your music?
It’s something I’m working on, trying to be able to write while I’m touring and performing. In my experience, the songwriting voice tends to come in quiet times, and I can only imagine that you’re all different. There are people who write all the time while they’re on tour, which I find impressive.
For me, it’s during times of solitude and a little quiet that creative things start to move. Even when I’m traveling alone, I tend to be more in touch with those voices than when I’m performing and letting off some energy. I’m always working to get closer to that artistic voice during this process.
Of all the places you’ve visited, what’s your favorite?
Honestly, I love being in this region. There’s something so magical about the Pacific Northwest. Certain parts of the region feel like another world to me. I’ve always loved being on the West Coast, especially the Pacific Northwest, where it’s much larger and inherently more exciting. But each region has its own charm. We really enjoy the Southeast and Midwest. We’re from the Northeast, so the whole region feels very familiar and like home.
Is there anything you always come back to as inspiration for your writing?
Like most people, inspiration comes and goes, usually when you least expect it. But there are certain spaces where it tends to open up the wormhole more consistently… I also go through different periods of my life where there were times when I was really immersed in a particular thread, and now I can’t seem to open that thread up again. That’s the nature of inspiration.
Can you tell us a bit about how you first got interested in music?
Music has always had a pretty profound effect on me. It has had a very strong influence on me since I was very young. I remember listening to music on CDs and with headphones, and I think I always loved the immersive feeling of music, the feeling of traveling, of existing in different worlds.
My sister is 10 years older than me, and she listened to a lot of Dave Matthews in high school, so I was immersed in that music from an early age. I’ve actually been getting a little into his music lately, so we’ve been talking about it a lot. It’s been really great to reconnect with his music.
Over the next few years, I kept begging my parents for a guitar. They finally gave it to me, and I started playing along with other people’s songs, trying to figure out what I was really doing. It was a lot of fun. But I also started writing songs pretty quickly. When I was younger, I would go and find little sounds that I could put together into a song. By the time I was in eighth grade, I’d formed a little band, taught my best friend how to play bass, found a drummer friend, recorded a little album in my basement, and sold it around school. It was a very special time. I was very free creatively. I felt like I’d discovered something.
What do you think the future holds for Goose after the tour?
We’ve been working on a lot of recording so I think there may be a few more albums coming out over the next year, and I’m excited to put out new music and continue doing what we’re doing.