I would definitely venture to guess that most of the #Goose community would hate on me for saying this but…
1-26-22 thru 3-12-22 is still the best Goose ever. Hands down. The newer shit just doesn’t come close to that era, with all due respect to Cotter. 🤷‍♂️
If you question my opinion just do yourself a favor and listen to the 1-30-22 Wysteria or Elmeg. Maybe the 1/26/22 Liz, 1/29/22 Empress, the 2/3 Echo, 2/7 This Old Sea, 2/12 Red Bird, 3/1 Wysteria, 3/4 Pancakes, 3/10 Rockdale, 3/12 Hungersite, etc…so many more.
Not much, if anything is on par with winter/spring 22 #Goose and that includes all of 2024 with a few exceptions. 🤷‍♂️
@vriphish76 I think it’s easy to say this on the surface. But when I went back a couple months ago and listened to Kettlehouse 2023—one of the indisputable best shows of the Ben era—I found it so lacking compared to recent stuff.

@chopaganda @vriphish76 Jan-March 2022 is absolutely one of the best stretches of Goose ever. To me, that was the payoff of everything they were building towards starting in 2018/2019.

I do agree with Chop, though, that the current jamming is generally deeper than what we've ever seen before. The spaces they are getting into now are just not something they were capable of 2-years ago.

With that said, I wish Peter would play more guitar even as he continues to make big improvement on keys.

@chopaganda @vriphish76 it’s interesting, the winter spring 22 shows pound for pound still hold up as the best tour IMO. I would disagree with Brad about the type of jamming that’s occurring now with Cotter. Multiple territories with tension and release jamming - PNC Madhuvan, Cap Myst, Philly Tumble, Salt Shed Thatch, Fox Arrow, Raleigh Cakes, SPAC Drive, Greek Drip - I find myself revisiting these quite often vs material with Ben.
@LeftyintheADK @vriphish76 Holy hell this 1/30/22 Elmeg is phenomenal. So wish this song didn’t get the studio treatment and remained this open and loose.
@chopaganda @LeftyintheADK I’ve never heard another Elmeg like it. It was only my 2nd show so I didn’t know any better at the time but I knew I absolutely loved that jam. I’ve heard every version since that one and they all are very formulaic and rarely go anywhere exciting these days.
@LeftyintheADK @chopaganda I think my biggest issue nowadays is the predictable,
similarly structured setlists, short gaps of some of the lesser material, long gaps of some of their best material, and very similar song locations in the setlist in comparison to late 21 and early 22. Also WAY less first set jamming now compared to then. Maybe it will just take some time to get there since they had to reset with Cotter, but this setlist predictably thing has been going on for awhile now.