Will Geese Redeem Noisy, Lawless Rock and Roll?

"On a recent Friday night, the indie-rock band Geese—formed in New York City in 2016, when its members were still a couple of years short of the legal driving age—played the final date of its North American tour at the Brooklyn Paramount, a baroque nineteen-twenties movie house turned concert hall, and the show was a jubilant homecoming. Even Mr. Met was in attendance, paying respects."

"Since Geese released its third studio album, 'Getting Killed,' the band has been rhapsodically heralded as the redeemer of a certain kind of noisy, lawless rock and roll. Critics love making such breathless declarations, and fans love to scoff at them. But isn't controlled hysteria sort of the point? Geese itself is a dramatic outfit, prone to bursts of noise, meandering digressions, and feral bleating."

"At the Paramount—Friday was the second of two sold-out shows there—Geese's front man, Cameron Winter, invited members of one of the opening bands onstage for an abbreviated cover of the Stooges' 'Fun House,' an almost eight-minute song, from 1970, about who knows what. 'Please welcome horns and shit like that,' Winter said, as the musicians ambled onstage. Geese is often compared to ambitious turn-of-the-millennium bands like Radiohead and the Strokes, but the Stooges might, in fact, be the most accurate analogue—attitudinally, if not quite musically."

Geese concluded a sold-out North American tour with a jubilant homecoming at the Brooklyn Paramount, performing with theatrical intensity and playful unpredictability. The band’s third album, Getting Killed, prompted fervent critical praise casting Geese as a redeemer of lawless rock, while fans balanced devotion with skepticism. Front man Cameron Winter encouraged onstage collaborations and staged a raucous cover of the Stooges' 'Fun House,' underscoring the band’s penchant for controlled hysteria. Geese blends bursts of noise, meandering digressions, and feral vocals, aligning attitudinally with proto-punk ferocity even as critics compare them to turn-of-the-millennium art-rock acts.

Read at The New Yorker