NORWALK — It began with a local band performing a concert for friends during the holidays inside a recording studio. Now, six years later, the annual Goosemas concerts have mushroomed into a sold-out show at Norwalk’s Wall Street Theater taking place on Dec. 21.
Over 1,000 fans are expected for Goosemas VI, the largest of these annual shows thus far. Goose, the host band, is a Norwalk-based progressive rock quartet consisting of Wilton High School grads Rich Mitarotonda on guitar and vocals, Trevor Weekz on bass, Peter Anspach on guitar, keys and vocals, and Ben Atkind, who’s from Massachusetts, on drums.
Jon “Coach” Lombardi, Goose’s tour manager and another Wilton High School graduate has been an integral part of the group since its inception.
“The band started in the fall of 2014,” recalled Lombardi. “We were just playing bar gigs at that point. I wanted the boys to have an end-of-the-year show, but I knew New Year’s Eve wouldn’t work well because we live close to New York City and everyone goes to Phish. Typically, though, all of our local friends come home just before Christmas, so we threw the first Goosemas on the night before Christmas Eve. … The point of Goosemas was always to bring people together to celebrate the holidays while listening to Goose.”
Mitarotonda noted there’s something special about performing in front of a Norwalk crowd.
“It feels like home,” he said. “We’ve certainly never played for as many people in Norwalk as we will this year, though. It’s been pretty wild to watch it grow over the past few years from just our friends to more and more people we don’t know. Now this year is by far the biggest jump we’ve seen to date on that front.”
The growth in the band’s holiday shows parallels the rise of Goose’s presence on the national stage and completes a year marked by several highlights. They’ve performed over 80 shows in 2019, touring in Colorado three different times with several sold out performances — including in Boston, Richmond and Chicago — and concerts having to move to larger venues to handle the bigger crowds.
The band is finishing up a fall tour that includes shows in Colorado again, Missouri, Kentucky and Illinois. In fact, we caught up with the band on the road earlier this week, traveling somewhere between Colorado and Kansas on their way to a set of show in St. Louis.
“I played in a band with Rich and Ben before Goose,” said bassist Weekz. “That band broke up, and after some time, Rich and I got in contact and formed Goose. We started playing shows and throughout the year and several line up changes, the sound naturally evolved to what it is today.”
Anspach added, “A lot of bands have great chemistry, but what makes Goose so special is the members off the stage all bring a unique perspective to the organization and play a huge factor in our touring lifestyle.”
Mitarotonda said a lot of styles go into Goose’s sound.
“Describing the music has been a tricky thing, as is the case with a lot of music these days,” he said. “Simply put, you could say we’re an improvisational rock band that draws from a variety of influences, ranging from jazz/fusion to indie/folk.”
The band’s 2016 debut LP, “Moon Cabin,” was followed by three studio singles this year: “All I Need,” “Butter Rum” and “Time to Flee.”
Playing live and in a studio are both favorite occupations for Goose.
“We definitely all love both for different reasons,” Mitarotonda said. “The spontaneity and fact you have no choice but to commit to an idea in the moment on the stage is very freeing, and everything that’s happening with the live aspect of the band at this point is all very exciting with growing crowds and energy. However, we also look forward to spending bigger chunks of time in the studio at some points in the future.”
There will be many more road shows coming up in 2020 with a West Coast tour in February that includes gigs in California, Oregon and Washington.
“One of my favorite parts of touring is developing new language with my friends both on and off the stage,” said Weekz, adding, “Stage plot.”
For Goosemas VI, Talkpeck Soundsystem, led by guitarist Matt McNulty, opens. DJ Doey Joey provides music during the breaks. For Goose info: visit goosetheband.com
Mike Horyczun’s Sound Surfing column will go on hiatus for a few weeks, but will return in January, when it will appear every Saturday in The Hour. Mike can be reached at: news2mh@gmail.com
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