“I see myself in you,” Geese’s Cameron Winter knowingly croons to a fluid mass of fellow stylish 20-somethings, all clamouring to get a little closer and lose their minds to their generational icon in the making. It’s lost on no one that this is one of those “I was there” shows, the time for the most talked about band on the planet to show you what it’s really all about.
Geese’s ascent has been something of a night raid. The former NME Cover stars generated moderate buzz around their 2021 debut on a major label ‘Projector; before the jazzy cowboy psychedelia of ‘3D Country’ showed that there was real potential in waiting. No one could have predicted how much that would blossom into Winter’s 2024 Lou Reed-inspired sleeper hit solo album ‘Heavy Metal’ and the critical eclipse of last year’s ‘Getting Killed’ creating the perfect online storm to blow Geese into the position of buzzy rock darlings.
The year ended with Winter delivering a breathtaking, pin-drop solo gig at The Roundhouse and ‘Getting Killed’ sitting atop all correct best album lists. Now they’re back in town for their biggest London headline show to date, and Hammersmith is rammed to the rafters with die-hards of all ages: largely well-dressed Gen-Zers but ranging to devoted 6 Music dads. We even spy recent convert Courtney Love in the foyer, seemingly taking a breather from all those “gatekeeper elder millennial troll fans” who have been giving her such a hard time.
There’s nothing but good vibes in the room. Arriving on a bare stage aside from a large Palestine flag, the Brooklyn indie heroes are greeted by an almighty roar for a simple “hello”, and from then on, London is theirs. From the simmering opener ‘Husbands’ to the runaway train of ‘Getting Killed’s naughty title track and the swaggering rock’n’roller ‘Crusades’, Geese deliver the good times like dropping dime after dime in a classic indie jukebox.
As the room swells and sways to the dreamy ‘Half Real’ and comes alive in circle pits for the paranoid ‘2122’, howling back every jagged riff, tender refrain and surreal lyric to ‘Cobra’, ‘Taxes’, ‘100 Horses’ and ‘Au Pays du Cocaine’ – echoing the zeitgeisty weight of “there is only dance music in times of war” – it’s clear these are not your casual fans. Winter puts so much into every mouthful, backed by a band of unquestionable chops and sheer musicality, generously giving just so much to hang from with every note and bar.
Having been interpolating rocked-up cover snippets by local heroes into ‘2122’ when they roll into town – Primal Scream in Glasgow, The Stone Roses in Manchester, Can in Cologne, and, erm, Chumbawumba in Leeds – tonight Geese give us a little more of an obscure curveball with ‘Come Down Easy’ by Rugby’s Spacemen 3. Sure! A Blur or Clash chorus was never going to be the headline of tonight, mind. It’s about the band of right now cementing their place.
“I’m going to the moon,” repeats Winter on new one and first set closer ‘Apollo’ – a song written “especially for the UK” about “the train of thought of a small woodland animal as they’re looking at the stars”, he tells us. Cute, for a pumping krautrock rabble-rouser that soon overheats into a wild art-rock meltdown: “I’m going to the moon, and you’re buying the ticket, motherfucker”. Let’s go!
Returning for an encore of “something with a little more depth” with the screeching noise-rock absurdity of ‘Trinidad’ as the crowd scream back “THERE’S A BOMB IN MY CAR”, Geese leave their mark and fulfil all hype in spades. While Winter’s last solo gig in these parts revealed him as a Tom Waits or Nick Cave for our time, tonight feels like one of those hallowed shows seeing Nirvana or The Strokes come into their own, or Radiohead finding their voice. In any way, it’s between Geese and Fontaines D.C. to define this decade as a band. Catch them at this unmissable moment while it lasts, for the pure joy of saying “I was there”.
Geese played:
‘Husbands’
‘Getting Killed’
‘Crusades’
‘Islands of Men’
‘Half Real’
‘2122’ (with Spacemen 3 ‘Come Down Easy’ snippet)
‘100 Horses’
‘Cobra’
‘I See Myself’
‘Cowboy Nudes’
‘Bow Down’
‘Au Pays du Cocaine’
‘Taxes’
‘Long Island City Here I Come’
‘Apollo’
‘Trinidad’