Photo by Jake Nelson
Author: Sofi Gonstead
The Brooklyn-based 5 piece, Geese, played their first Seattle show at Barboza on March 29. I’d like to preface this article by saying that they delivered a performance so (unsurprisingly) mesmerizing that I completely forgot to, well, take notes. If anything, let this assure you that I had a real good time.
They kicked off their set with an unreleased song, a refreshing tease to their upcoming material, meanwhile setting the spirited tone which they would carry with them until the end. “Exploding House” was the track that followed–with its pounding drive of an introduction– leading the audience straight into the deep breath of its first line: “Home is where the heart is,” singer Cameron Winter sighed into the painfully bright stage lights, “I’m afraid of the world.”
The band’s debut album, Projector, a 41 minutes and 13 seconds of seductively youthful paranoia–or “guitar-driven indie rock that is loud, angsty and also trying to be fancy,” as guitarist Gus Green described to me before the show, was released in October of 2021. Despite the captivating freshness of the record, Geese have been constantly compared to their influences and other artists within the post-punk genre, something not at all uncommon for a young, (not yet 21 years of age!) up-and-coming band.
“No one necessarily wants to be called a bargain bin version of some other great band,” said Winter. “It’s not that big of a deal, but we’re definitely trying to get away from that. It impacts what we do.”
The band certainly understands these comparisons, however. Winter’s vocal delivery has been compared to everyone from Julian Casablancas of The Strokes, to Radiohead’s Thom Yorke, to Jim Morrison of The Doors.
“People actually ask if I’m related to Julian Casablancas and Jim Morrison,” he laughed. “Like, why would you ask that? If I actually was, every headline would start with ‘Son of Jim Morrison…’”
They ended their set (pre-encore) with an urgent and unabating “Disco”, the near-seven minute debut single that attests to the band’s strengths in songwriting–“I talk to the mirror like I’m trying to start a fight / And you’re not scared of anger anymore”. Despite embarrassingly knowing every single word of “Disco”, I can’t lie when I say the song that excited me most during this set was the untitled, unreleased track I first heard at the end of Geese’s KEXP performance. Watch it, and you’ll understand why. Winter actually admitted to me that it does in fact have a title now, but he described it as “a nonsense word, like Häagen Dazs.” Good enough for me!
It was clear after my conversation with the group that they’ve grown eager to share their new material with the world, considering Projector was, as Winter jokes, a “High School album”.
And he meant this quite literally.
“We thought of it as our last project before we graduated,” agreed bassist Dominic DiGesu. This was, of course, before they received several impressive label offers–ultimately deciding on the acclaimed Partisan Records. (Fontaines D.C., IDLES, et al.) Frankly, if Projector is merely this band’s “High School album”, I think we should all be watching very closely for project number two, something DiGesu hinted we may be able to expect sometime this year.
Before I thanked the group for their time and wished them a good show, I made sure to ask drummer Max Bassin if he’d be playing with enough energy that night to kick right through his bass drum–something he has done twice in the past.
His response?
“I’ll try my best.”
Sofi Gonstead｜Someone please buy Max a new bass drum｜KXSU Music Reporter