By: Jack Skidmore
It is pretty unusual for an entire crowd to immediately boo when the lights go down for a concert to begin. However, one could easily mishear this at the McDonald Theater in downtown Eugene as the entire room chanted an extended “Goooooose'' just before the band members took stage. Prior to the show on the night of the 25th of April, some eccentric fans made squawking
noises at each other while others flapped their arms in excitement. One thing was for sure, this band meant something special to the attendees.
For many in the jam band community, it has been a long time since they had the same admiration for a band quite like many hold for Goose. Hailing from Norwalk, Connecticut in 2014, what makes this band unique is their exceptional musical skill and attention to detail mixed with their boisterous youthful energy. Haze Moss, a Eugene resident and longtime frequent jam concert attendee described a highly positive experience seeing them for his first time at the Eugene show. He also said “I have a pretty open mind and I’m always looking for new bands doing something different and they fall into that category.”
As well as their musical talent, Moss points out other characteristics that make the band impressive. One of these is the band’s effective placement of a few, well-polished cover songs throughout their performances. As Moss said, “It’s helpful to hear someone’s rendition of something you already know.”
At the Eugene show, one of my personal highlights was the rendition of “Peggy-O” by The Grateful Dead. This was a bold move considering many people in the crowd were huge Dead-Heads but the song was delivered absolutely flawlessly. It certainly grabbed my attention from knowing the song beforehand.
Prior to the Eugene show, Grateful Dead member Bob Weir had performed this song live with Goose at another concert. This signified a shift of attention to a new generation from within the genre that the Dead had spearheaded. Moreover the frontman of the popular jam band Phish, Trey Anastasio, accompanied the group on a tour in fall of 2022. As respected legends of a genre pass the torch to these guys, an entire community of fans follow in admiration.
At the McDonald theater, it was evident that most in attendance were significantly older than the average college student. However, close to the front at the most lively sector of the show one could find multiple cohorts of younger and older people dancing amongst each other to the music and chasing the high of the quintessential jam band experience. UO student and concert attendee Brooke Thalacker states, “That community welcomes you regardless of your age and loves when there is a younger crowd.”
During the intermission of the show I spoke briefly to Moss where he recounted his memories of seeing over 200 Phish shows in his lifetime. This narrative was coupled with a sense of nostalgia towards seeing these types of bands in long past years. The younger faces of Goose themselves mixed matured fans' memories of their show experiences made for a sense of unified vicariousness at McDonald theater.
The excitement towards the merge of old and new is truly what makes this band so enjoyable for many. Not to mention, Goose has some of the most impressive musicianship out of any band I have witnessed on stage which combines advanced self songwriting and jaw dropping
improvisation. While some dwell on times past in the jam band community, others look forward to what new faces have to offer; Goose as an experience represents a multigenerational resurgence of a genre.