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.”
