Goose’s blitz at Leader Bank Pavilion on night one dovetailed improvisation with irresistibly catchy rock.

Goose in action at the Leader Bank Pavilion: Peter Anspach, Rick Mitarotonda, and Trevor Weekz. Photo: Sam McLennan

Goose is still a band on the ascent.

At least that was the impression left following the band’s June 30 concert at Leader Bank Pavilion, the first of a two-night stand in Boston as part of Goose’s summer tour touting the recently released Big Modern! album. (Arts Fuse review)

Goose represents the best of the modern jam-band era, building on the styles and techniques of past masters such as the Grateful Dead and Phish to create a distinctively fresh approach to improv-driven rock ’n’ roll.

Thus, across two 90-minute sets on Tuesday, Goose masterfully crafted peaks and valleys, tensions and releases, both within individual songs, across each set, and ultimately over the arc of the entire concert.

Peter Anspach and Rick Mitarotonda at the Leader Bank Pavilion. Photo: Sam McLennan

The performance aligned with the band’s sense of adventure and experimentation on Big Modern!, which leans into the prog-rock and New Wave influences that shape Goose’s expansive sonic palette.

While many jam bands roaming the land bring that open-borders approach to their music, Goose distinguishes itself with its songwriting. With this band, the songs actually matter; they aren’t just vehicles to carry guitar solos and 25-minute ensemble jams. To that end, Goose unapologetically delivers huge pop hooks and open-hearted sentiment that wouldn’t sound out of place on Top 40 charts.

On the other hand, Goose is also very skilled at making some really weird stuff sound surprisingly accessible, and that’s how the concert on Tuesday began. “Animal” is a wiry, funky come-on from last year’s Everything Must Go album. Guitarist Rick Mitarotonda played sharp, prickly solos over the pile-driving rhythms of bassist Trevor Weekz and drummer Cotter Ellis.

But, once the band moved into “Feel It Now,” sung by keyboard player Peter Anspach, the tone grew warmer, and the sense of exploration shifted from the steely progressive to the organic rustic. The band further downshifted with the blues of “Dr. Darkness,” never letting its energy wane as it worked backward down the musical timeline.

The second half of the first set blossomed into a wild jam fest, starting with a version of “Drive” that had Weekz and Ellis playing like the Experience rhythm section behind Mitarotonda’s Hendrix-channeling soloing.

Cotter Ellis at the Leader Bank Pavilion. Photo: Sam McLennan

“Torero” from the new album featured the band’s jazzier side, before Anspach led the charge through an explosive version of the quirky, shuffling “Earthling or Alien?”

Goose closed the first set with a soaring take on the pretty, pop-inflected “Everything Must Go.”

Goose and Billy Strings are the leading proponents of the new jam philosophy: make every show count. Don’t get stuck in a script, but likewise, don’t let the musical trip fall over the edge. With Goose, entertainment isn’t sacrificed at the altar of art. And that’s not a knock — it recognizes that the members of Goose are talented and disciplined craftsmen.

Goose’s second set on Night 1 offered further evidence that psychedelic bliss and a thoughtful plan of attack can powerfully coexist. The set established an almost unbroken flow, starting with a 20-minute version of tempo-shifting “Arrow.” That dissolved into the spooky gait of “Bob Don” which transitioned into an unforgettable version of “Into the Myst.” In that song, all that makes Goose such a dominant force in the jam-band genre snapped into focus: the steady, slow build, the impressive grooves, a sense of drama that tricks the listener into thinking the band has peaked, just before taking the song up another notch, and a boldness that is not grounded in egocentric bravado.

That segment was tough to top, but Goose navigated a thrilling journey to the concert’s end, kicking off with a breezy cover of Kate Bush’s “Running Up That Hill.” Then, to close the second set, Goose unleashed a 20-minute version of “Madhuvan,” one of its early showstoppers that remains potent. The band came out for an encore of “Silver Rising,” a werewolf’s lament that depends on mesmerizing vocal weaving among the band members.

At a time when the audience for live music is shrinking or drifting to other forms of entertainment, the packed house for Goose offered hope that, when the music is delivered with accomplishment and conviction, people respond. This long-running, music-based community of musicians and fans has grown strong wings.

— Scott McLennan covered music for the Worcester Telegram & Gazette from 1993 to 2008. He then contributed music reviews and features to The Boston Globe, Providence Journal, Portland Press Herald, and WGBH, as well as to The Arts Fuse. He also operated the NE Metal blog to provide in-depth coverage of the region’s heavy metal scene.

On night two, Goose proved its mettle at the transcendent heart of the concert.

Rick Mitarotonga of Goose at Leader Bank Pavilion. Photo: Paul Robicheau

What direction is Goose headed? For old-school jam fans who’ve been happy with the flight path, the group’s new album Big Modern! raises some concerns with its overproduced tracks of 1980s-style dance-rock. The title track even sounds like a cross between Dire Straits (think “Money for Nothing”) in the verses and Huey Lewis & the News in the chorus.

A glance at the stage before the band came out for Wednesday’s second sold-out night at Leader Bank Pavilion perpetuated such questions when the hot pink-and-yellow color scheme from the new album was conspicuous. Pete Anspach’s keyboard and guitar, Cotter Ellis’ drum riser, and the foam screens on the vocal mics were all pink. And both colors popped in album-echoing signs that read “Big Drum!” on the head of the bass drum and “Big Rack!” on Rick Mitarotonda’s guitar amp. Nothing wrong with a sense of humor, but did it all hint at pop aspirations?

Trevor Weekz of Goose at Leader Bank Pavilion. Photo: Paul Robicheau

Once the four members of Goose strolled out and started to play, however, nothing seemed all that different. The biggest concern was the sweltering temperatures under the tent, which may have been a contributing factor to the group’s slow start to the first set. Three songs in, “It Burns Within” warmed things up with a more solid feel, though it still came across like watered-down Little Feat.

But the dependable “Wysteria Lane” really picked up the pace. Mitarotonda laced conversational leads through a filtered tone over Ellis’ choppy drum eddies before the song’s gliding groove flowed into another Goose staple, Eddy Grant’s protest tune “Electric Avenue,” where Trevor Weekz’ thick bass lines grew appropriately prominent. Mitarotonda played clipped licks over the gooey cover’s tumbling momentum, and fans cheered a bracing guitar peak before the tune resolved with him singing “Out in the street, out in the night” before the chorus took it higher one last time.

Cotter Ellis of Goose at Leader Bank Pavilion. Photo: Paul Robicheau

The pavilion’s video screens showed double images and overlays of the musicians playing to complement the trippy feel of the band’s ever-improving light show. In turn, “Draconian Meter Maid” (by Ellis’ old band Swimmer) set jagged angles and fractal guitar sounds into percolating motion that rolled into “Flodown,” where Mitarotonda played zippy, spidery runs through that bluegrassy Phish-like shuffle to close the first frame.

Anticipation was high for the second set after such a strong first-half finish—and out popped that title track from Big Modern! “Deep space, sublimate, chewing on a clickbait,” Mitarotonda sang while rattling off non-sequitur terms. “Come on in, for a real good time.” Then came the Huey-ish chorus, “Look alive! Looks so easy. Look it up, let’s see what we can do,” before the band locked into a metallic riff. Without the record’s slick layers of production, those ’80s-derivative hooks seemed more intriguing than irritating.

Peter Anspach of Goose at Leader Bank Pavilion. Photo: Paul Robicheau

Best of all, it was ironically “Big Modern!” that yielded the night’s most ferocious jam, a 15-minute instrumental segment more exploratory than usual for Goose. The quartet churned away while pinwheeling lights blasted from behind, then wandered into psychedelic pulsations. Berklee alum Mitarotonda was simply on fire, his guitar at the crest of the improvisatory jaunt, tastefully bookending the jam with oozing quotes from John Coltrane’s “Impressions.”

“Creatures” emerged from the flow for another 20 minutes in the zone, building from an ambling groove to a quickening pace where Mitarotonda took off with fleet flurries, pausing in patches of sustain as he climbed a ladder of tension.

But, after two songs that consumed the first 45 minutes of the second set, it was hard for Goose to sustain the mood and intensity, particularly in the stifling heat. The coupling of an ebb-and-flow “Jive II” and a brisk, funky “Jive Lee” (driven by Anspach’s clavinet-styled keyboard strokes) managed to hit a few high points in closing out the second set. And a reggae-easy “Doobie Song” (emerging for the first time in over a year and dedicated to the band’s crew) came off as a frisky denouement before the arrival of “Give It Time,” which felt reined in so the band could nail the 11 p.m. curfew.

“Turn it up and let it go,” Mitarotonda sang in that parting favorite. But this was a night where Goose proved its mettle at the transcendent heart of the concert. By comparison, the beginning and end seemed more like an extended ruffling of feathers.

— Paul Robicheau served more than 20 years as contributing editor for music at the Improper Bostonian, in addition to writing and photography for The Boston Globe, Rolling Stone, and many other publications. He was also the founding arts editor of Boston Metro.