BottleRock 2025 Preview: Popular Jam Band Goose Performs Sunday, May 25
BottleRock Napa Valley has had some unfortunate luck with their jam band bookings. In 2013, the festival’s first year, their biggest headliner, Further, an offspring of the Grateful Dead featuring Bob Weir and Phil Lesh, was forced to cancel at the last minute for health reasons. Then in 2020, the Dave Mathews Band along with the rest of the line-up was postponed because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
This year, barring another unexpected disqualifying event, the very popular jam band Goose will perform at BottleRock Napa Valley on the Jam Cellars Stage at 4:15 p.m. on Sunday, May 25.
The current configuration of Goose is a quartet featuring Rick Mitarotonda (lead guitar and lead vocals), Peter Anspach (vocals, keyboards and guitar), Trevor Weekz (bass) and Cotter Ellis (drums). The Connecticut-based group, performing and recording for the past decade, has amassed a large and loyal fan following. They have played at many of America’s most prestigious venues including Red Rocks, the Ryman in Nashville, Austin City Limits, Bonnaroo and the Newport Folk Festival.
In late April, Tom Hoppa, BottleRock’s talent buyer and director of artist experience, talked with me about Goose and jam bands in general. “Northern California has been a strong hub for jam band music,” Hoppa said, “and that really stems back to the days of The Grateful Dead and the Haight Ashbury music scene. Jam music is essentially an amalgamation of a number of styles and genres that have been extremely popular for decades, including blues, Americana, jazz, bluegrass and rock. The genre is something that we have not been able to dive too deeply into in past years, but it definitely fits well at BottleRock, and it’s one that we will continue to build on in the future.”
Hoppa described his first live exposure to Goose in concert. “I saw them at the Warfield in San Francisco about two years ago,” he said. “It was a fantastic show and the whole process of booking them stems back to their agent inviting me to that performance. I had been very curious about Goose and was enjoying their music online. Going to that show, seeing them live and seeing the response of their fans really resonated with me personally and I felt they would be a great booking for us at BottleRock.”
The festival executive was particularly impressed with Mitarotonda. “I watched what he does with the guitar,” Hoppa said,” and it’s very much in line with what not only Trey Anastasio does, but also what Jerry Garcia did. The scales, modes, and chord styles that Rick uses in his guitar playing are very reminiscent of both The Grateful Dead and Phish. It’s clear to me that they both were massive influences on him.
“I was just blown away by the band’s groove and the level of improvisation that they present in their live show. Bands like this can take a five-minute song and easily turn it into an extended jam. Often you don’t realize that it’s been 10 or even 20 minutes. The music is so captivating as you’re watching and listening to them take you through each song, the highs and the lows, the build-ups and the drops.”
Hoppa emphasized that while Goose has obviously been influenced by bands like Phish and The Grateful Dead, they’re not trying to copy them. “Goose really feels like its own thing, its own authentic style, which is great,” he said. “Yes, they are a jam band. They acknowledge that they’re a jam band and are categorized as such, but I think that they’re more accessible to the average contemporary music listener than a typical jam band. You can see it, for example, in the way that they bend genres. They’re really fantastic. I hope you enjoy them at BottleRock.”
Festival details and ticketing are available at bottlerocknapavalley.com
David Kerns is a Napa-based novelist and music journalist.
