Two Sets, No Opener, and a Kate Bush Cover: Goose at Leader Bank Pavilion
Tuesday night at Leader Bank Pavilion opened with a heat wave and closed with a Kate Bush cover. In between, Goose did what Goose does. That is, they played long, played loud, and gave their devoted fanbase exactly what they came for.
Leader Bank is one of Boston's better outdoor venues, an open-air amphitheatre sitting right on the water in the Seaport with enough capacity to feel like a real event. Shows there can take a while to fill in, especially when there's an opener going on at 7pm while most of the crowd is still finding parking. Not Tuesday. Goose hit the stage right at 7 with no opener, and the place was already packed. First night of a two-night Boston stand, first day of a serious heat wave, and nobody seemed to care about either.
The band opened with "Animal" and settled immediately into the long, exploratory jams that define their live experience. Songs stretched well past the fifteen minute mark, the lighting rig doing its own work overhead with a show that was genuinely impressive even when the band members themselves barely moved from their spots on stage. That's not a criticism. Goose is a band where the music is the spectacle, and the music was more than enough.
The crowd brought their own energy. At the end of every song, and when the band first walked out, the pavilion erupted in a sustained "GOOOOOOSE", a sound that must be genuinely alarming to anyone nearby who doesn't know what they're hearing. To the uninitiated it sounds exactly like a stadium full of people booing. To the Goose faithful, it's a ritual, and the fans have clearly leaned into the absurdity of it with some affection.
Set two was the deeper dive, moving through "Bob Don," "Into the Myst," and a cover of Kate Bush's "Running Up That Hill" that might have been the night's most unexpected and most memorable moment. "Silver Rising" closed things out as an encore before the crowd filtered out into the Boston summer night.
Two sets, no opener, one of the better light shows you'll see at an outdoor venue this summer. I’m sure night 2 was just as good, and probably had a lot of the same fans returning for more.
GOOSE SETLIST:
Set 1:
Animal
Feel It Now
Dr. Darkness
Drive (Unfinished)
Torero
Earthling or Alien?
Everything Must Go
Set 2:
Arrow (Unfinished)
Bob Don
Into the Myst (Unfinished)
Running Up That Hill (A Deal With God) (Kate Bush cover)
Madhuvan
Encore:
Silver Rising
