photo via Goose Facebook

The summer of 2026 is on track to be one of the hottest on record, and so far the temperature peaked on July 2nd, the night Goose performed at the PNC Bank Arts Center in Holmdel, NJ. With the relentless heat, fans were slow to enter the venue, and the band delayed the show’s start time longer than usual to accommodate the slow but steady trickle of concertgoers. The pre-show setlist was great, consisting entirely of songs about heat or fire, and the place was decently full by 7:40, when Goose took the stage.

They opened with a pair of tunes from last year’s Chain Yer Dragon, coming out swinging with a heavy, hard-rocking “Rockdale.” Drummer Cotter Ellis started rocking the cowbell early, then took the band into double time about halfway through what turned out to be a 16-minute powerhouse of a jam that was equal parts hard rock and mellow funk. The song melted into “Hot Love & the Lazy Poet.” By this point, almost 25 minutes into the set, the temperature in the shed was all but unbearable, at least 15 degrees warmer than it was on the lawn, where many fans sought a (periodically) breezy reprieve. The crowd was respectful and non-chompy, focused on hydrating while the band transitioned seamlessly into a deep “Atlas Dogs,” featuring compelling piano work from Peter Anspach. (He spent the entire show behind the keys.) They followed with “Madalena,” another tune from Dragon, before performing their first (but not last) cover of the night, a triumphant version of Arcade Fire’s melancholically defiant “Wake Up.” They went on to close the set with a massive “Pancakes,” perhaps the highlight of the first set, before circling back to close out the set with “Hot Love & the Lazy Poet.”

The band kicked off their second set about two hours after they began playing; by then, the temperature had begun to drop but still was quite balmy. Some say that drinking a hot beverage is the best way to cool down during hot weather; perhaps that’s why the band opened with a monster of a “Hot Tea” that immediately got the crowd dancing. The band fed off the energy, exploring a variety of colors and cadences in a 20+ minute jam – not their longest version of the song but not far from it – before stopping the tune in its tracks, unlike much of the first set, which flowed from tune to tune. Peter took the spotlight for a 20-minute rendition of “Red Bird” with a jam that got funky before getting spacey: many have called it a contender for JOTY. They shifted gears into “Hungersite,” with Ellis carrying the jam and keeping everybody dancing with a contagious level of energy that led the band to play their second cover of the night: Dead or Alive’s “You Spin Me Round (Like a Record).” Each of those tunes clocked in at around, resulting in a four-song second set. They returned for an “Arcadia” encore, with Anspach teasing the “Magic School Bus” theme from behind the keys, never picking up the guitar as he often does with the tune. Fans left the show fully saturated: soaked in sweat, certainly, but equally drenched in the joy of a night spent dancing and a helluva show.