Goose Didn't Just Inherit the Jam Band Scene -- They Reinvented It

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t’s June 19 inside Madison Square Garden, six days after the first New York Knicks NBA triumph since 1973, two weeks before the wedding of Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce, and 35 minutes into Goose’s soundcheck at the iconic venue. The band is playing the first of two dates later that night, and their practice run goes for at least an hour. You see, bands that play four-hour-long, two-set shows do long-ass soundchecks.

Goose hail from Wilton, Connecticut, a woodsy, affluent town about 90 minutes from New York City. Seeing as the band and their organization live and create in the area, they are part of the New York Metropolitan area and thus citizens in good standing of Knicks Nation. The members of Goose — singer/guitarist/frontman Rick Mitarotonda, secondary singer/guitarist/keysman Peter Anspach, bassist Trevor Weekz, and drummer Cotter Ellis — sat courtside this past April as the Knicks faced the Chicago Bulls; some in the entourage wear orange and blue jerseys and make easy conversation with MSG staffers, who are clearly still walking on air.

The MSG organization sees a future with the band: an LED display at the venue’s third tier reads “WELCOME BACK TO MSG, GOOSE,” and clips from the finals are shown before tonight’s proceedings — surely this is the first time the Knicks theme song “Go New York Go New York Go” has been played at a jam band show.