Geese @ Gothic Theatre- Jim and I got killed

photos by Bradley Humble and Jim Sellars

At this point, if you are anywhere near the internet, or at least have one chronically online friend, you have heard the name Geese an excruciating amount of times. Cameron Winter’s face has probably been plastered all over your feed, with a healthy amount of band edits mixed in. You might have even tried to memorize “Voodoo Balarama Baba Yaga”, whatever that means. 

But instead of consuming Geese mania at a safe distance through our phones, Jim and I witnessed the phenomena in person late October. 

Like a literal angel from above, we received press and photo passes for their show on the day of (tickets were like $250, shoutout Talia Garg from Geese management or else theres no fucking way I could afford to go). And even though we showed up well before the doors opened, the line was already around the block. 

Before we go any further, I do think it’s important to contextualize “Geese”. Although their rapid rise to stardom has felt almost artificial, the great extent of their success warranting some speculation, they have actually been working up to this moment for quite some time. Getting Killed is their fourth studio album (go look up A Beautiful Memory on Youtube), and is also preceded by frontman Cameron Winter’s breakout solo project Heavy Metal. This is a group who has been playing with their sound for over 7 years now, meandering through lineup changes and solo passion projects, resulting in a set of musicians much more mature than their actual age should warrant. So although complaints about their sudden popularity and internet fame are easy targets, in reality Geese has been almost overdue for a moment like this. And this was no clearer than the amount of excitement in the crowd leading up to their show. 

Admirably, openers Racing Mount Pleasant did a good job of preceding such a generational act. A set filled with Black Country New Road-esque musical ideas, it was a welcome beginning to a night that we all knew would end with necks sore with head-banging and ringing ears. They tried their best, but everyone was really just counting down for Geese to get on stage. 

The Geese finally arrived, led by Cameron Winter’s surprisingly giant frame. It felt immediately like we were about to witness something larger than life, a true snapshot of a generation. The Geese are all awkwardly charming in their own way, something that I think is more responsible for their success than has been given credit. These are a bunch of kids, a high school band that has lived out every high school band’s dream. They are something like gods to a whole group of young people, but their apparent ‘normativity’ and ‘accessibility’ makes them even more transcendental. I also would be remiss if I didn’t admit that Max Bassin is my new idol now. He’s the only person who can make those dorky beetle-like eye sunglasses cool.

Anyways, all that to say, writing about seeing Geese feels almost useless. How much more can we say about an amazing act that has already filled up so much space in music publications this year. Cameron Winter’s iconic solo tour has happened since we saw Geese this fall, and his performance at Carnegie Hall has had every major publication rushing to cover it, in a desperate effort to try to stay relevant to young people. 

So, I guess I’m here to say, very simply put, Geese is the real deal. If you have even a remote chance to see Geese or Cameron Winter in the near future, I’m begging you to do it. 

Ranging from their opening track Husbands, to their absolute face-melter of a closing song, Trinidad, watching Geese forces you to think about nothing else but the show in front of you. It’s a real showcase of the rock genre, each song coming alive and inevitably different from the studio recording. Tracks like Bow Down and Long Island City Here I Come take a completely different shape, the sheer percussive talent of Dominic DiGesu and Max Bassin operating without the same constraints they had in the studio and post-production. I heard some music critic who described Emily Green’s guitar as the ‘cutting edge’ of the percussive foundations of each song, in a sense still trying to figure out what the right parts are for each tune. I think that’s true for both her case and Winter’s achy vocals. With such a powerful base to work with, in the live context they both can animate the upper half of the sonic spectrum with freedom. And even though there were still a decent amount of people with their phones out and recording throughout the show, I for one, felt a little bit like a time traveler, back in the age of legendary rock concerts whose experience you knew could never exist outside of that magic night. 

Really, that’s my takeaway. It’s kind of dumb to try to describe something that’s so great, great because it’s indescribable. I was originally going to try to describe each song in their setlist, dissect what makes them so great, but it would be for naught. Geese is a reminder of the raw excitement that comes from seeing a rock band live, the emotion that can be communicated when the smothering synths of modern popular music and the infinite layers of production are shed. Sex and Drugs and Rock and Roll or whatever.

Leave it to New York City to come around every 25 years or so and bring a rock act back to the mainstream discourse. Damn kids.