Goose at Amica Mutual Pavilion, Windfall, 12/13/25
Live performance Opinions
Contained in the Windfall venue, the Goose present was an Nineties circus carnival — exterior, an image of terror and chaos.
Goose at Amica Mutual Pavilion, Windfall, Dec. 13, 2025, on livestream.
I ought to’ve woken up Sunday morning with Goose’s “Wysteria Lane” nonetheless ringing in my head. Nonetheless half-dreaming about coloured balloons and animal puppets.
However Saturday night time’s Goosemas was so overshadowed by the worst sort of darkness, I wakened considering of Neil Younger’s “Ohio.”
That’s a tune a few campus taking pictures again after they had been so uncommon we wrote songs about them.
Two useless in Windfall. 9 injured. A taking pictures at Brown College, simply minutes away from the Amica Mutual Pavilion the place Goose’s Goosemas was a technicolor dream: a musical funhouse jamboree, full with clown costumes, an aerialist, animal puppets, confetti, hundreds of coloured balloons.
A distinction so sharp from the actual world simply exterior, it may reduce glass.
For the uninitiated, Goosemas is the annual vacation live performance extravaganza placed on by New England jam band Goose.
Now in its twelfth 12 months, it began as “a vacation occasion for us and our pals” in Norwalk, Conn., as frontman/Berklee alum Rick Mitarotonda advised me beforehand. “Within the early years, we purchased a bunch of kegs and a bunch of pizza. As years went on, it grew exponentially.”
Goosemas 2025 — again in New England for the primary time in years — was an all-out carnival funhouse on the AMP in Windfall Dec. 12 and 13.
Assume Beatrix Potter on acid. “Sesame Road” on LSD. Goosemas 2025 was “Over the Backyard Wall” meets touring Nineties circus, campy playful carnival lunacy, pageantry, with a splash of the throw-it-at-the-wall-and-see-what-sticks vibe of Rolling Thunder Revue.
A large balloon drop, confetti, streamers, masterful trippy gentle work, a clown’s mouth, an aerialist on silks, human-sized puppets by way of Greatest Big Puppets — a fox, a cardinal, a monkey — a marionette menagerie, like madhouse variations of a Chuck E. Cheese band.
Goosemas is what we’d all be doing on Saturday night time if Wavy Gravy ran the world.
When the powers of Mitarotonda and multi-instrumentalist Peter Anspach —each natives of Wilton, Conn. — mix with bassist Trevor Weekz and Bedford, Mass. native drummer Cotter Ellis, the on-stage alchemy could be electrical. It was this weekend.
Their lighting rivaled Phish, one other New England jam band to whom they’re usually in contrast, together with the Lifeless. Their penchant for pageantry is unmatched.
Every year, Goosemas has a theme. This 12 months, inexplicably: “Barnaby Glimpse’s Present Upon Time: A Phantom Menagerie.”
A band that loves making random quick movies, they made an eight-minute quick about Barnaby, a bit boy who goes lacking in 1734. It skips to the late 1800s when the band — taking part in Gilded Age dandies and scallawags — discovers the tree the place Barnaby vanished, and tastes the purple goo oozing from its trunk.
Foolish, inane, a bit humorous, and completely absurd, the movie might’ve left you questioning “Why tho?” There is no such thing as a why with Goose.
My expectations for the Suessical insanity on Saturday had been excessive — but Goosemas blew previous them.
This was a full-on topsy-turvy Wonderland circus.
The Saturday, Dec. 13 present opened with a big, glowing, tie-dye eyeball-like orb, then quietly, Mitarotonda — sporting a purple swimsuit, gold shirt, with clown eyes drawn on his face, and the identical Gilded Age, steam-punk tinted spherical sun shades he wore on night time 1— appeared on a darkish stage. Surrounded, vigil-like, by glowing gold candles, he was joined by half a dozen ladies in lengthy white clothes, all with lengthy flowing hair, some with Taylor Swift-like face-jewels and golden crowns, holding lit candles. Listed within the billing because the Windfall School Refrain, their vibe was harking back to the sirens by the river within the Coen brothers’ traditional “O Brother The place Artwork Thou?” blended with nineteenth century Christmas choir singers.
The group delivered what began as a lullaby-like cowl of Francis McPeake’s “Wild Mountain Thyme” — a play on the present’s theme. As soon as Ellis’s drums hit, it grew to become a religious.
Whereas the band knew about that afternoon’s taking pictures — they’d posted an Instagram story earlier than the present — they couldn’t, at the moment, have identified the total extent. However within the context of the night time, with the symbolism of the school college students holding vigil candles, I teared up.
It segued easily right into a hushed “Give It Time,” with the PC choir, which broke into the sort of traditional Mitarotonda guitar solo that will get the gang screaming. Above: a large circle of sunshine, which illuminated the hundreds of coloured balloons tucked up within the rafters.
Drummer Ellis, shirtless, wore red-and-white striped overalls, an American flag-printed spiked jester’s crown, and clown-like make-up: triangles above and beneath every eye.
Anspatch on keys wore a bowler-type hat, blue striped shirt, red-and-white striped vest, blue trousers with purple stripes down the legs, with lengthy clown’s eyelashes painted on his face. Weekz donned a gold jacket and striped pants.
A quick-paced “Flodown” highlighted Rick’s talent fingerpicking, which may really feel as quick as one of the best of old-school bluegrass banjo pickers. At numerous factors within the night time, the jam-pace grew to become so frantic it matched the heart beat of the strobing lights, which appeared, at factors, to return from all over the place unexpectedly.
A set one spotlight: a canopy of Brian Eno and David Byrne’s “Unusual Overtones,” conjuring a excessive falsetto from Mitarotonda, because the stage all however glowed purple.
After intermission, the second set began with a horn-filled cowl of The Band’s “Life is a Carnival” — once more, becoming the theme.
The stage now included a big clown’s mouth door, the kind you may see in carnival fun-house entryways, with old style nineteenth century freak present posters on both facet: “The spirit of the darkish horse” “The 2-headed Yeti.”
A fats, funky, horn-filled “Huge Fashionable” led into a cool, horn-filled “Sizzling Tea,” earlier than the stage began glowing electrical inexperienced, with fuzzy, nearly outer-space sounds. Lights grew to become strobing and twisting. Folks on stage graffitied over posters. The clown’s face was illuminated to appear like a purple cranium, lights twirled orange, greens, reds. A home music dance beat dropped.
This led right into a rollicking “Manufacturing facility Fiction,” which ended set 2.
For the encore, an actor wearing Victorian garb, taking part in the Barnaby character, appeared: “I used to be starting to marvel once you’d present again up … I’m Barnaby Glimpse, your host tonight. In a carnival caught between methods and delight, you’ll witness marvel… For tonight is the present upon time!”
This clip from night time 1 additionally captures the texture of night time 2.
Confetti burst, streamers exploded, coloured balloons rained down. A menagerie of human-sized puppets. An aerialist was abruptly acting on silks. A cacophony of coloration and sound. A lady with a hula hoop on stage. They lastly launched right into a horn-filled “Empress of Organos” constructing to climactic jam, earlier than the PC refrain got here again of their white robes for a quiet, hushed “Empress of Organos” reprise. The lights stopped strobing, a delicate candle glow hovers over the stage. The gang nonetheless bouncing the coloured balloons, tossed from hand at hand.
Now right here comes the twist.
Horrifying information on Night time 2
We had been driving into Windfall round 6 p.m. on Saturday for Night time 2 when my boyfriend’s household referred to as. There was an lively shooter in Windfall. A gunman was on the free.
We pulled into Panera to frantically Google. An SOS alert got here up on Google for “brown college taking pictures.”
A CNN Breaking information alert. It was the highest story on Apple Information. It was on the BBC’s web site. The campus, some two miles from the venue, was on lockdown.
My cousin texted from Windfall: a helicopter was flying over. Cop automobiles had been all over the place. Brown was beneath shelter-in-place. The town may be beneath shelter-in-place?
We stored hitting refresh to see in the event that they caught the man. They stored not catching the man.
What ought to we do? Eat the tickets? Roll the cube and drive into the scene? Had been we making the precise alternative? What if the gunman was caught in a couple of minutes? (He wasn’t.)
We had digital tickets by way of nugs.internet to look at the live performance by way of livestream. Ought to we play it secure and watch from residence?
We sat in that Panera, refreshing our screens till, with half-hour to go till doorways, we circled and drove residence. Virtually in silence. Virtually damaged.
At residence, we turned on the TV information. It was nonetheless scary on the market. Chaos another way. The unhealthy sort of strobing lights — the purple and blue form. Turning from CNN to the livestream (from which I wrote the above assessment) felt absurd.
We agonized in that Panera. However at residence, I spotted that to have crossed my fingers, held my breath, and entered the venue quaking and jumpy to write down a straight assessment could be a lie of omission. Willingly placing blinders on in probably the most callous manner doable.
I knew that every one the enjoyment contained in the AMP would vanish like a lot sweet floss within the rain as quickly as these home lights lifted, and concert-goers exited, beneath heavy safety, onto a road full of closely armed police, into nightmarish streets, a blaze of flashing reds and blues. A metropolis on lockdown. A metropolis terrified.
Goosemas is one of the best of what people can do collectively.
I sang at residence. I wanted I may’ve touched a kind of coloured balloons.
However right here’s the unhappy reality.
“I purchased the digital ticket as a result of the gunman was nonetheless on the free” is just not a surprising story.
It’s a very common story in 2025.
Two children went to high school and died. Occurs daily on this nation. Folks die in purchasing malls and elementary faculties, at marathons and concert events, whereas purchasing for groceries.
Go away the home, and also you may come residence, you won’t.
I’m scripting this on the anniversary of Sandy Hook. I’m scripting this on the brand new anniversary of Bondi Seashore. I’m scripting this whereas Windfall holds vigil.
Dec. 13 was not the day the music died. Nevertheless it was a day individuals may’ve been afraid — with soberingly legitimate motive — to go hear it.
The Windfall Place Mall, subsequent to the AMP, closed early. The AMP didn’t. The band didn’t deal with the taking pictures on stage. Goose posted an Instagram story earlier than the present:
“Our hearts are with everybody within the Brown College group immediately. Goosemas will proceed as scheduled. In coordination with venue administration and native authorities, further police and safety have been put in place to make sure the protection of all our followers…”
They later storied that they had been “grateful to everybody who might be right here and everybody who watched at residence.”
On Instagram, followers had Ideas.
“So are we getting our a refund if we sheltered because of the lively shooter and couldn’t attend?
“Can the individuals who really feel uncomfortable going to a dwell present with a taking pictures lower than 3 miles away get refunded? @ticketmaster — I’m tremendous dissatisfied, particularly with many different companies within the surrounding space closing for the night time.”
“My brother and I drove in earlier than listening to the information and ending up turning proper round as a result of it felt unsafe.”
“Why are you letting individuals into the venue the place there’s a shooter at massive?”
“Goose love y’all tons however you’re placing individuals at critical threat retaining individuals exterior whereas there’s an lively shooter close by”
“learn the room?”
For others, it was solace:
“Unsure why Goose is getting warmth … If anybody feels unsafe they will train free will and take motion.”
“This present was all magic all night time”
“This complete crew deserves probably the most raucous applause. What may presumably evaluate to this?!
“They stated extra with the poignancy of the music that was carried out than may have been articulated verbally.”
The top of innocence?
I watched a few of Goosemas night time 1.
They closed Dec. 12 with a somber, goosebump-inducing cowl of Neil Younger’s “Sugar Mountain.”
Earlier than the Brown taking pictures, it felt an on-the-nose alternative for Goosemas’s general vibe: The barkers and the coloured balloons. It’s so noisy on the truthful, however all your pals are there.
In gentle of what occurred lower than 24 hours later, it felt like an ominous warning. A premonition of the tip of the innocence.
There was a time on this nation once you purchased the ticket, took the trip.
Didn’t assume twice about bullets. You didn’t fear in regards to the gunman on the free, or coming into a metropolis on lockdown. Didn’t fear about having to enter or exit a venue to seek out the chaos of a war-zone.
Sitting in a Panera, anxiously refreshing your telephone earlier than the present is simply how an evening may go.
When Columbine occurred, I used to be a highschool junior. It appeared then like an remoted occasion.
However go searching, and notice the world you grew up in is gone.
Sugar Mountain melted like polar ice caps. The cliched line: These things occurs all over the place else — I by no means thought it might occur right here.
Ain’t it humorous how you are feeling once you’re findin’ out it’s actual?
Goose has lengthy drawn comparisons to the Grateful Lifeless. Made jam band believers out of loads of millennials and Gen Zers.
Author Joseph Campbell is quoted as saying after an ’86 Lifeless present: “The Deadheads are doing the dance of life. This, I’d say, is the reply to the atom bomb.”
I’m not so positive anymore.
However isn’t it fairly to assume so?
Lauren Daley is a contract tradition author. She could be reached at [email protected]. She tweets @laurendaley1, and Instagrams at @laurendaley1. Learn extra tales on Fb right here.
Setlist for Goose at Amica Mutual Pavilion, Windfall, Dec. 13, 2025
Set 1:
- Wild Mountain Thyme
- Give It Time
- Flodown
- Echo of a Rose
- Into the Myst
- Unusual Overtones (Brian Eno & David Byrne cowl)
- Wysteria Lane
- (daybreak)
Set 2:
Life Is a Carnival (The Band cowl)
Thatch
Huge Fashionable!
Sizzling Tea
Jam
Manufacturing facility Fiction
Encore:
- Dramophone (Caravan Palace cowl)
- The Empress of Organos
- The Empress of Organos Reprise
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