GEESE — THE GETTING KILLED TOUR
7:00 PM: Brooklyn Paramount, November 20, 2025.
General Admission Floor, Security Gate by VIP Section (approximately 20 rows back)
Geese: Cameron Winter (vocals, guitar) Dominic DiGesu (bass) Emily Green (guitar) Max Bassin (drums)
There’s a Bomb in My Car
There’s a moment in “Trinidad” where Cameron Winter pauses before all hell breaks loose. Far from the cathartic explosions of youth anthems like “Smells Like Teen Spirit” or “Seven Nation Army,” Geese’s frontman begins the song and the album telling us, wailing at us over a simple funk lick:
“I try… So hard.”
And then, in a symphonic explosion of atonal noise that would do Stravinsky proud:
“THERE’S A BOMB IN MY CAR!!!!”
“THERE’S A BOMB IN MY CAR!!!!”
“On and on and on... On and on and on…”
I cannot think of a single moment, lyric, or song that so perfectly captures how it feels to be alive in 2025.
Trying every day. So hard.
Explosions! Panic! No resolution and on and on and on.
When Geese played one of their final North American shows at the Brooklyn Paramount on Thursday night, the band and the crowd hit that moment where everyone in the room knows exactly what they’re there for. As someone lucky enough to have seen Nirvana at Roseland in ‘93, the Strokes at MSG Theater in ‘03, and the White Stripes at Irving Plaza in ‘07, it brings me great joy to tell you — the kids are alright.
A Band Created in a Lab?
Cards on the table—Geese is a band that may have been created in a lab just for my benefit. They wear their New York influences openly: the Velvet Underground’s art-damaged sprawl, Television’s guitar interplay, the Strokes’ urban cool. They’re Mets fans who geek out about their fandom.
But it should be no surprise that if rock’s revival is truly at hand, a New York band would be at its forefront. Since the last great explosion 20 years ago, New York bands from the National to Big Thief to Been Stellar have been carrying a torch for the burgeoning rock counterculture.
Strange Delight
My friend Dan and I had dinner beforehand at Strange Delight in Fort Greene—for martinis and a light dinner, the kind of pre-show ritual that matters when you’re 49 and doors open at 7. We got to talking with this guy in his sixties who told us he’s seen everyone—decades of shows, the whole history. This was the show he was most excited for all year.
I continued my evangelism for Rosalía’s Lux, which is the only album released in 2025 that rivals Geese’s Getting Killed. Both are equally brilliant. He nodded, pulled out his phone to make a note. He is all about MJ Lenderman and Waxahatchee - who admittedly are great.
Geese attracted a truly diverse crowd at the Paramount, which spanned generations, fashion styles, and likely local Brooklynites and suburbanites like myself. In our section we were mixing with everyone from our age to twenty-somethings who probably weren’t born when I saw the Strokes.
With resale prices going for $300+ and people literally standing outside the doors begging for tickets—the people in the room clearly needed to be in the room.
Dan and I staked out a spot right by the VIP section, leaning on one of those security gates. Not heading back into the mosh pit at this point in life. But the position was perfect—you could see everything
Ripping through a fifteen-song set, they opened with “Husbands,” that song-long crescendo that builds and builds until it has to break. They channeled the spirits of the Velvet Underground, the New York Dolls and Television. Noisy, fuzzy atonal rock that resolves into melody when you need it most.
By the time they hit “Taxes” late in the set, the entire room sang louder than Winter’s amplified voice — anthemic without resorting to the cheap showman’s tricks that have become the hallmark of the “poptimist” era.
The real shit.
GEESE IS THE MOMENT
Geese is the kind of band that will inspire 100 new bands every time they play live. Maybe 124.
recently wrote about “The Moment”—when someone commands clear attention as the center of the most important environment. Reggie writes that “The Moment” can’t be faked or marketed into existence. It’s earned through performance and narrative, adorned on you like a prize.Thursday night, as hundreds of kids held aloft lighters (lighters!!!)and chanted “One More Song! One More Song!” Geese had The Moment.
And when they came back for the encore… I mean this is why we go to rock shows.
I’m 52. Saw Nirvana. Played since 1996.
Played Arlene’s Grocery in 2000. Winter was born in 2002. He never knew NYC before 9/11. And that is fascinating to me. Their arrival this moment is proof to me that we are very much alive. We need them. “We can’t keep running away from what is real.”
THERES A BOMB IN MY CAR!!!!