Live at Madison Square Garden

Goose is on the rise. If the Grateful Dead is folk-oriented jam and Phish is funk-oriented jam, Goose tends toward an indie pop and arguably more accessible take on jam band. That might sound unappealing, but I actually love it. Their guitarist Rick Mitarotonda is phenomenal at electric guitar—especially the jams—and just keeps getting better. The other members are excellent in their own right too. These jams can open doors to the astral plane. Goose sold out Madison Square Garden last summer, notably going an hour past curfew, and this live album is taken from that night. Many tracks exceed 15 minutes, allowing the jam to unfold. Take it in...

Related: Grateful Dead, Phish, Dead & Company
Favorites: 1, 4, 5, 9, 10, 13, 17, 18
No FCCs

1. (18:48) * Factory Fiction—Grateful Dead feel but the guitar jamming is brighter, solid opener, eleven minutes in a meditative jam that gets anthemic by the end
2. (18:00) Hungersite—High energy jam that turns intense and cacophonic by the end
3. (4:52) My Mind Has Been Consumed by Media—Driving krautrock, 80s guest vox, very different from Goose’s usual
4. (16:05) * A Western Sun—Profound folk meditation with evocative lyrics, Rick sings, excellent piano-driven jam starts seven minutes in—this is prime Goose
5. (6:25) ** Running Up That Hill—Melodic soaring vox and chiming guitars, excellent overall, packs a lot in just six minutes
6. (7:47) Give It Time—Feel good summer jam, reassuring
7. (8:52) Feel It Now—Great jam with horns, would also recommend the jams at Stanford, September 2024 and Holmdel NJ, September 2024
8. (11:02) Dustin Hoffman—Emotional melodic jam, would highly recommend also checking out the jam in San Francisco, May 2025 as it’s seminal
9. (17:07) ** Animal—Excellent vox, jam starts five minutes in and it grooves in a Grateful Dead melodic way, really great jam overall
10. (21:47) ** Thatch—Cool syncopated funk jam that’s very Phish, then gets more dreamy and piano-driven and eventually quite driving for the final ten minutes—hands down one of the best Goose jams
11. (17:46) Red Bird—Very Phish funk-oriented jam, similar to Thatch but remains on the funk plane throughout, don’t love the closing jam
12. (8:30) Don’t Leave Me This Way—Retro jam vaguely Hendrix, multiple vox, radio-friendly
13. (21:06) * Tumble (Part I)—Classic early Goose jam, like a cross between the Red Rocks 2022 jam which was peak + their jams of other songs, gets into a sultry groove around nine minutes in with Rick soloing, truly great though the jam gets gnarly in last seven minutes
14. (12:24) Creatures—Soulful jam driven by crunchy guitar/bass dynamic and soaring vox, good if disjunct outro
15. (7:00) Shama Lama Ding Dong—Clean guitar tone and vox, feel good grooves, Rick briefly talks about how they’re going past the MSG curfew—closes with anthemic jam
16. (7:32) Tumble (Part II)—Freewheeling intense jam
17. (8:01) * Jed Stone—Calm Grateful Dead summerteeth atmosphere, vox shine
18. (16:33) * Dripfield—Experimental rock, huge sound, excellent rock n roll instrumental jam starts at 8:30, one of the best Dripfield jams I’ve heard
19. (12:52) Arcadia—More explicitly grooves, similar to Jed Stone, good closer